The internal crisis in West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) deepened on Thursday as veteran party MP Kalyan Banerjee launched a blistering personal attack on party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, accusing him of treating senior leaders like “dustbins.”
The outburst came just days after 58 rebel TMC MLAs formally staked claim to the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) position, virtually splitting the legislative party into two warring camps.
‘I am not a dustbin’
Kalyan Banerjee, known for his fiery rhetoric, warned that he would not tolerate being sidelined.
“This is just a trailer. Now, you will get to see the entire picture. I will not keep quiet, nor will I maintain restraint. I am not a dustbin. Can’t treat me like a dustbin,” a visibly agitated Kalyan Banerjee told reporters .
He went a step further, alleging that Abhishek Banerjee is “promoting the interests of industrialists and contractors” while neglecting the party’s grassroots workers .
The Serampore MP’s outburst marks a dramatic escalation of hostilities. Unlike the 58 MLAs who have maintained a veneer of loyalty to party chairperson Mamata Banerjee while isolating Abhishek, Kalyan has now directly questioned the general secretary’s leadership and integrity.
‘They never wanted seniors’
Kalyan Banerjee traced the current crisis to what he described as the systematic sidelining of senior leaders within the party.
“The ones who speak in the House, they are not acceptable to them. They never wanted seniors. They wanted sycophants,” he alleged .
This sentiment echoes the grievances expressed by the rebel MLAs, who have accused Abhishek Banerjee of running the party through a “cabinet of inexperienced sycophants” and bypassing the traditional party structure .
The veteran MP, who has served in the Lok Sabha since 2019, also alluded to external backing for Abhishek Banerjee.
“You can’t run the party by taking blessings from Delhi. You are taking blessings from your friends in Delhi. The people of Bengal have understood everything,” Kalyan Banerjee said .
His reference to “friends in Delhi” was interpreted as an allegation that Abhishek Banerjee enjoys support from central agencies or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an accusation previously made by other dissident leaders.
‘I will not stop now’
Kalyan Banerjee warned that this was only the beginning of his protest, threatening to go public with more damaging allegations unless the party leadership changes its approach.
“If they do not stop this harassment, I will not stop now. I will speak without stopping,” he said .
He added that he has “all the evidence” to back his allegations and that he would not hesitate to make it public if the party continued to disrespect him.
Party reactions and emerging fault lines
The TMC leadership has not officially responded to Kalyan Banerjee’s outburst. However, loyalists have attempted to downplay the significance of the attack, dismissing it as the frustration of a leader whose son was denied a ticket in the recent assembly elections .
The crisis has laid bare the growing chasm between two factions within the TMC: the old guard, which rallied around Mamata Banerjee during the party’s early years, and the newer generation of leaders aligned with Abhishek Banerjee. The rebel MLAs, who claim the support of 58 legislators, have publicly announced their separation from Abhishek Banerjee while continuing to pledge allegiance to Mamata Banerjee as the “original Trinamool.”
Mamata Banerjee’s balancing act
Party chairperson Mamata Banerjee has remained publicly silent since the rebellion erupted, attempting to maintain order while both sides claim to act in her name. Her ability to resolve the widening rift will determine whether the TMC emerges from this crisis as a unified force or fragments into warring factions ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
As Kalyan Banerjee’s outburst demonstrates, however, the wounds are deepening—and the party’s internal divisions may soon become impossible to ignore.
