NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has an onerous task at hand. The Trinamool chief needs to identify the black sheep in the party who leaked videos and purported chats of an ugly spat between her senior MPs – first at the office of Election Commission and then on the WhatsApp group of the party MPs.
Mamata and her party have been left embarrassed after BJP leader Amit Malviya shared story of alleged infighting between leaders of the Trinamool Congress along with video clips and WhatsApp chats on his X handle.
The BJP leader claimed that two Trinamool MPs had a public spat in the precincts of the Election Commission of India on April 4, 2025 – the day a Trinamool delegation had gone to the EC office to submit a memorandum.
“It all started after one MP, who was carrying the memorandum, went to the EC office directly ignoring party’s instruction to first meet other members of the delegation at party’s Parliament office to get the document signed by all of them. This angered the other MP, who confronted him when they came face to face at the commission office,” Amit Malviya wrote in his post on X.
“Later the fight continued in the ‘AITC MP 2024’ WhatsApp group with MPs trading barbs at each other,” he added.
‘ I want the media to see this’
The leaked video shows a visibly agitated TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee taking out his anger while other party leaders try to pacify him and calm him down.
Kalyan Banerjee continues with his rant even when prodded that the media is watching his actions. “So what! I want the media to see this,” says Kalyan Banerjee when he is warned about media presence. The TMC MP goes on to say that he will not tolerate such things as he has not come through quota or from any other party.
Then the fight spilled on to the WhatsApp group of the Trinamool MPs where Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad – who joined Mamata’s party in 2021, engage in an ugly spat.
Ironically, the purported WhatsApp conversations not just brings to fore the infighting within the party, but also indicate that not two but three MPs were involved in the incident.
In the chat, Kalyan Banerjee refers to a “versatile international lady” and makes several strong comments on her. When Kirti Azad confronts him, he vents out his anger against him.
‘Just because the woman MP speaks fluent English doesn’t mean she can insult anybody’
Later, speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Kalyan Banerjee admitted that an altercation did take place, but pinned the blame on a woman MP – whom he did not name.
“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,” he said.
“Just because the woman MP speaks fluent English doesn’t mean she can insult anybody,” added Kalyan Banerjee, who is also the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha.
According to party sources, following the altercation, the woman MP exited the WhatsApp group and sent letters to both Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
A senior TMC leader, who requested anonymity, said the argument occurred last week when a party delegation had gone to the EC to submit a memorandum.
“After the TMC delegation arrived at the EC office, Kalyan Banerjee had a verbal spat with the woman MP over the signing of the memorandum. She then asked the security personnel to intervene and demanded his arrest, alleging misconduct towards a woman parliamentarian,” he said.
The matter further escalated when Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad had an argument on the MPs’ WhatsApp group.
“It was Kirti Azad who provoked me and was lecturing me on what to do. He has leaked the WhatsApp chats,” Kalyan Banerjee claimed.
‘He misbehaves and insults everyone’
Reacting to the controversy, senior TMC MP Sougata Roy blamed Kalyan Banerjee for tarnishing the party’s image.
“What he has done has maligned the party. Party 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,” Roy told reporters.
Clearly, for Mamata Banerjee, who is gearing up for the assembly elections next year, this public display of infighting within the party is the last thing she would want. More so, when the school jobs scam has already given the BJP a strong weapon to nail her and the Trinamool.
