Won’t Tolerate That Rude MP”: Kalyan Banerjee Slams Party MP Amid Chat Leak Row

Kolkata:

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.”