Four-time Srirampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, the man who was chosen as Trinamool Congress leader in the Lok Sabha just a month ago, and the one who holds press conferences on behalf of the party to quell rebellion by his colleagues, has become a rebel himself.
On Thursday, the mercurial 69-year-old lawyer-turned-legislator asked party chief Mamata Banerjee to choose between him and her nephew, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, thus joining the 60-odd legislators and 16 Lok Sabha MPs who criticized Abhishek Banerjee’s alleged methods and cited the Diamond Harbor MP’s behavior as grounds for rebellion.
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Kalyan Banerjee has certainly never been shy about picking a fight or attacking anyone, even Abhishek Banerjee, but his latest outburst will be the most violent because of its timing – at a time when TMC and Mamata Banerjee are fighting for survival.
“Either him or me”
“I told Derek (O’Brien) that Mamata Banerjee has to choose – either him (Abhishek Banerjee) or me,” he told HT. “It is a lot of arrogance. Look what he has done to the party. I have always said that you can be my leader only when you win Tripura or Goa. Derek O’Brien, who was appointed one of the new general secretaries in the midst of the party’s revolt, told Kalyan Banerjee that he would return to him soon, after consulting Mamata Banerjee.
Read also | ‘Don’t Treat Me Like Trash: Kalyan attacks Abhishek Banerjee and warns Mamata
The origin of this battle lies in the sudden change of the party’s legal team in a case related to the validity of the signatures of the Transitional Military Council representatives. “On Friday, I was handling this case, then there were raids and I mentioned the case on Wednesday. Suddenly they said they will send someone else. I have 45 years of experience, they can’t treat me like a trash can. I waited for work all day and then they decided to send someone called Ayan Bhattacharjee,” he said.
When asked if the legal issue was the only problem, Kalyan Banerjee said arrogance had seeped into every aspect of the party’s functioning and now it was time for the party chief to decide. The last time Kalyan Banerjee spoke publicly about Abhishek Banerjee was in January 2022, when the Srirampur MP said he only knows the Mamata model and does not know the Diamond Harbor model, referring to Abhishek Banerjee’s strategies.
On Thursday, Kalyan Banerjee cited this earlier example to HT, noting that he always spoke his mind. Insiders said the latest battle was more about who handles the TMC’s legal issues, noting that Kishore Datta, one of Kalyan Banerjee’s associates, was earlier the Solicitor General of West Bengal but resigned in September 2021 after differences with Abhishek Banerjee.
Kishore Datta returned in 2023, but Abhishek Banerjee wanted his trusted legal team to handle his cases, leading to the final showdown. A senior lawyer, on condition of anonymity, told HT that Mamata Banerjee asked them not to assume that Abhishek Banerjee’s instructions came from her. While Mamata Banerjee has mollified Kalyan Banerjee in the past, the latest ultimatum, at a time when she is frustrated, may lead to a more lasting rift.
The crisis and public drama in the party have caught some of the new leaders by surprise. Menaka Guruswamy, a senior advocate and new member of the Rajya Sabha, told HT how she witnessed some party colleagues speaking on behalf of Mamata Banerjee a few days ago and then doing a complete U-turn a few days later.
Guruswamy said that Mamata Banerjee was talking to the TMC MPs and added that she had a long conversation with the party chief just two days ago.
“It is a very sad time when ideologies and values have become volatile and fragile. It is a sad moment for India as a country, when politicians elected on the mandate of a party and the party leader have escaped in this way. As a new entrant in Parliament, it makes me very sad for my country,” she said.
There is bound to be a revival, said Abhishek Singhvi, Congress Rajya Sabha member, who appeared before the court on several occasions.
“BJP cannot exploit what is not innately there.”
“There is no doubt that a large portion of the defections in the TMC are out of genuine dissatisfaction and pent-up anxiety. I would go further and add that the BJP cannot exploit what is not innately there. But, no one should underestimate the combination of abuse of agency, vendetta and intimidation on the one hand with massive abuse of financial power on the other as a major contributor… The sad fact today is that in terms of quantity, degree and scope of abuse of power and money, the BJP has surpassed the combined cases of The Past Seventy Years of Indian Democracy.
While Mamata Banerjee is battling the insurgency from many quarters, public assurances of support by three of her MPs on Thursday provided some relief.
Two Lok Sabha MPs whom the BJP claimed were rebels – Shatrughan Sinha and Pratima Mondal – promised that they were with Mamata Banerjee. “I am issuing a three-line whip to myself – I was with TMC and Mamata ji, I am with TMC and Mamata ji, I will stay with TMC and Mamata ji. I have no intention of going anywhere,” Sinha said.
“The fake news being spread is not good, neither for the public that elected me in the elections, nor for me either. I have not even been to Delhi,” Mondal told PTI. Former BJP minister and Rajya Sabha MP Babul Supriyo also declared his loyalty to the TMC. “Amidst all this confusion and rumours, I want to make it very clear that I am not joining any faction or any other party. It is inappropriate to abandon a ship when it is in troubled waters,” he said in
