NEW DELHI: For 15 years Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress were untouchable. Three consecutive Assembly election wins built her legacy and four straight Lok Sabha polls – in which the Trinamool was the single-largest party – cemented it.
But on Thursday the Trinamool lurched deeper into an existential crisis after party veteran Kalyan Banerjee ripped into her nephew and second-in-command, Abhishek Banerjee. “It is a great humiliation to me,” Kalyan Banerjee – one of Mamata Banerjee’s staunchest allies – fumed. “His arrogant attitude has destroyed the party… He should understand that.”
“Everyday he thinks he is the ‘king’… Even in the bad days. When I am standing for the party, standing behind Mamata Banerjee, it is impossible for me to work. It is impossible because of this attitude of Abhishek Banerjee,” he raged.
“Mamata di has to decide first,” Banerjee declared, delivering a ‘him or me’ ultimatum, “She has to decide… if she cannot move the party (forward) without Abhishek, then I will not be there.”
The outburst followed reports Abhishek Banerjee – who faces a criminal investigation in a forgery case – had dropped him as his lawyer. Kalyan Banerjee told reporters he only found out he had been replaced when a second petition was filed.
Hours earlier the Calcutta High Court granted Abhishek Banerjee interim protection from arrest for three weeks, while also directing him to appear for questioning by 6 pm Thursday. That particular controversy erupted after a proposal asking the House to recognise Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition allegedly contained some MLAs’ forged signatures.
