NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Tuesday reportedly left the party’s Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata after a verbal exchange with party supremo Mamata Banerjee.According to a report by news agency PTI, Mamata was upset with Kalyan over exceeding his allotted speaking time at the rally, where he spoke for around 23 minutes.Party sources told PTI that the list of speakers at the rally near the Birla Planetarium was unusually long, and all leaders had been instructed to keep their speeches brief so that everyone could be accommodated.Kalyan Banerjee, however, continued speaking for nearly 23 minutes, launching a blistering attack on the BJP as well as the breakaway Trinamool faction led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.”Mamata Banerjee alone is the Trinamool. The BJP-backed stage has been set up there, but the workers are not with them. Those BJP-sponsored MLAs dreaming of taking over are only digging their own grave,” he said.Sources present on the dais claimed that Mamata, who arrived on the stage while Kalyan Banerjee was addressing the gathering, gestured to him to wrap up his speech. When he continued, senior party leader Kunal Ghosh also intervened, they said.After the speech ended, Mamata Banerjee allegedly expressed her displeasure over the delay, leading to a brief exchange of words before the MP walked off the stage and headed straight to his Kalighat residence without waiting for the speeches of party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee or the TMC chief. Sources in the Mamata camp said the delay forced the organisers to drop several scheduled speakers from the programme, including Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra and Kirti Azad, Rajya Sabha MPs Dola Sen and Sagarika Ghose, and Rajeev Kumar.Kalyan Banerjee, however, rejected reports of any spat with Mamata Banerjee.”I left after my speech as I had other engagements. There was no altercation. Had there been one, would I have gone to the front of the stage and addressed the gathering the way I did?” he said.The Trinamool Congress did not issue any official statement on the reported episode.The development assumes political significance as Kalyan Banerjee is among the few senior leaders who have remained steadfastly with Mamata Banerjee after the Trinamool split following the BJP’s victory in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.Recently, he publicly criticised Abhishek Banerjee during a dispute over legal representation in a Calcutta High Court case, saying Mamata Banerjee would have to decide “who would remain in the party — Abhishek or me”.The differences were subsequently resolved, with both leaders publicly expressing mutual respect.
