Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee has hit out at a female party colleague - whom he labelled "rude" and "uncivilised" - amid apparent (and growing) rifts within Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress, something Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can ill afford before next year's high-stakes Assembly election.
Mr Banerjee also slammed senior Trinamool leader Saugata Roy after he lamented the "shame" of having WhatsApp chats from the party's MPs group leaked by the BJP. He countered by referring to the 2014 'Narada sting op', in which politicians, including Mr Roy, were recorded allegedly taking bribes.
The pushbacks follow a row last week - between Mr Banerjee and other Trinamool MPs, including ex-India cricketer Kirti Azad - over the presentation of a memorandum to the Election Commission.
According to Mr Banerjee, he had been told 27 MPs (but not who) would sign and deliver the memorandum. "Next morning, as I reached the EC office, a female MP questioned me because her name was not on the list. She shouted... that her name had been deliberately removed."
Mr Banerjee stressed he had not been told about who will, or will not, be in the delegation.
"She shouted and I responded... Then she ran to the BSF (Border Security Force) and asked them to arrest me! I have been in politics for 40 years... fought against CPM, Congress, and BJP."
"You know me... but this lady has no issue except with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi... she never challenges any other BJP leader, even from Bengal. How dare she ask for my arrest?"
"If didi (Banerjee) says I am wrong, I shall quit politics forever. But I will not tolerate that rude female MP who pressures me to give her more time (to speak in Parliament). What is this? I can take pressure from anyone but I cannot take from that MP... for saying I have to allot her more minutes," he declared.
The female MP - who has been backed, it appears, by Mr Azad - has not responded so far.
The latter end of that row was captured (secretly, it appears) on mobile phone footage and later shared online by the BJP's Amit Malviya. In that video an irate Mr Banerjee seems to say he does not owe his post either to a 'quota' or because he joined from a rival outfit. The remark has been seen as referring to the woman MP and Mr Azad, who joined from the BJP in November 2023.
Soon after the public spat between two TMC MPs in the precincts of the Election Commission of India on 4th April 2025, the irate MP continued slandering the ‘Versatile International Lady (VIL)'…
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 8, 2025
This is the stuff legends are made of! pic.twitter.com/dsubQrmQUj
Apart from posting the videos of Mr Banerjee, Mr Malviya has also posted private chats from a WhatsApp group of Trinamool MPs, in which Mr Azad says Mr Banerjee has had too much to drink and the latter rants about "the beautiful activities of versatile international lady".
On 4th April 2024, two TMC MPs had a public spat at the headquarters of the Election Commission of India, where they had gone to submit a representation. It appears the party had instructed its MPs to gather at the Parliament office to sign the memorandum before proceeding to the… pic.twitter.com/BwqQRE8FhI
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 7, 2025
Meanwhile, on Sougata Roy saying the BJP publishing confidential WhatsApp chats between party MPs is a matter of "shame", Mr Banerjee lashed out, "Does Sougata Roy have a character? His nature is to disturb all... he has not liked me since 2001... (he) was caught taking cash!"
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