Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 8: With the elections to the West Bengal Assembly due within a year, an infighting within the ruling Trinamool Congress has come to the fore with its Members of Parliament engaging themselves in low-level arguments and blaming each other giving an opening to the rival BJP to taunt the party.
The Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee, who is also the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, hit out at a “female” party colleague whom he labelled “rude” and “uncivilised.” 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.
A senior TMC leader explained that the argument erupted last week when a party delegation visited the Election Commission to submit the memorandum. Kalyan Banerjee allegedly clashed with the woman MP over the signing of the document. She subsequently requested security personnel to intervene and demanded Kalyan Banerjee’s arrest, accusing him of misconduct towards a woman parliamentarian. Both MPs are said to have lodged verbal complaints with the Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee regarding the incident.
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 Kirti Azad, is believed to be firebrand leader Mahua Moitra,
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 did not owe his post either to a ‘quota’ or because he joined from a rival outfit. 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.”
Senior TMC MP Saugata Roy weighed in on the controversy, accusing Mr Banerjee of damaging the party’s reputation.
“What he has done has maligned the party. It should immediately remove Kalyan Banerjee from the post of chief whip. He misbehaves and insults everyone in the party. It must take stern action against him,” Saugata Roy told reporters.
On Saugata Roy saying the BJP publishing confidential WhatsApp chats between party MPs is a matter of “shame”, Mr Banerjee lashed out, “Does Saugata Roy have a character? His nature is to disturb all… he has not liked me since 2001… (he) was caught taking cash!”
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Mr Banerjee confirmed that an altercation occurred but placed the blame on the woman MP.
“I have been in politics for the last 40 years. This woman MP was asking the security personnel outside the EC office to arrest me. Who are they to send me to jail? She hurled abuses towards me. It is I who fight in Parliament; I am not someone who is only obsessed with a specific industrial house,” Mr Banerjee said. “Just because the woman MP speaks fluent English doesn’t mean she can insult anybody,” Banerjee added.
Senior TMC leaders have confirmed that the issue has been escalated to party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Sources within the party revealed that following the altercation, the woman MP exited the WhatsApp group and sent letters to both Ms Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
The situation further escalated when Banerjee and Kirti Azad engaged in a heated argument on the party’s WhatsApp group. Banerjee claimed, “It was Kirti Azad who provoked me and was lecturing me on what to do. He has leaked the WhatsApp chats.”
Earlier, Roy had expressed ignorance about the incident but later acknowledged that whatever transpired had indeed defamed the party.
