Kolkata: Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday sought to dial down tensions within the party, striking a conciliatory tone a day after senior MP Kalyan Banerjee launched a sharp attack on him and reportedly asked party supremo Mamata Banerjee to choose between her nephew and veterans like himself. “I told Derek to tell Mamata: choose between Abhishek Banerjee or a worker like me,” the senior TMC leader had said.
Speaking to reporters after attending a meeting of the party’s top leadership at Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence, Abhishek described Kalyan as a senior leader who had watched him grow up and was entitled to criticise him.
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“Kalyan Banerjee has seen me grow up. He is a senior leader of the party. He has every right to say a few harsh words to me. There is no reason to create unnecessary controversy over it,” Abhishek said.
The remarks came less than 24 hours after Kalyan publicly questioned Abhishek’s leadership style, accused him of arrogance and warned that he may reconsider his own future in the party if the current situation continued.
Kalyan’s Open Revolt
Kalyan Banerjee, one of the TMC’s most outspoken parliamentarians and a senior advocate, was conspicuously absent from Friday’s leadership meeting, triggering fresh speculation about widening cracks within the ruling party.
On Thursday, Kalyan announced that he would no longer represent Abhishek Banerjee in court matters and launched a stinging criticism of the Diamond Harbour MP.
“His arrogance has crossed all limits. If he remains in the party, I will have to think whether I should continue,” Kalyan had said, while indicating that he would directly convey his concerns to Mamata Banerjee.
The outburst stemmed from developments related to the assembly signature forgery controversy, in which Kalyan was expected to appear on Abhishek’s behalf before the Calcutta High Court before withdrawing from the matter. Although he did not initially provide a reason, Kalyan later complained of growing arrogance within sections of the party leadership and hinted at deeper organisational dissatisfaction.
His criticism has drawn particular attention because he had, until now, remained among the strongest defenders of the party leadership. Even during recent bouts of unrest, Kalyan had consistently backed the leadership and taken on dissenters publicly.
TMC Faces Growing Internal Turmoil
Abhishek’s conciliatory response comes at a time when the TMC is grappling with one of the most serious internal crises in its history following its poor performance in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections.
Earlier on Friday, senior leaders including Abhishek, Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, Madan Mitra, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh attended the strategy meeting convened by Mamata Banerjee.
The election setback has triggered open rebellion from sections of the party’s MPs and MLAs, many of whom have questioned Abhishek’s growing influence over organisational affairs.
The unrest has surfaced both in Parliament and the state assembly. On Monday, a group of 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by party chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar reportedly wrote to Speaker Om Birla seeking recognition as a separate bloc supporting the BJP-led NDA, exposing divisions within the party’s parliamentary wing.
The parliamentary revolt followed turmoil in the West Bengal Assembly, where 58 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs allegedly defied the party leadership and backed expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition instead of the party’s official nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.
Against this backdrop, political observers viewed Abhishek’s restrained response as an attempt to prevent another internal confrontation from escalating further, even as the party struggles to contain multiple centres of discontent and preserve unity ahead of future political battles.