TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Accuses Kalyan Banerjee of Abuse, Misogyny
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has filed a complaint with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accusing her party colleague Kalyan Banerjee of verbally abusing her inside Parliament and misogynistic behavior towards women MPs. The complaint comes at a time when fault lines within the TMC have deepened, with dissent and civil unrest increasingly evident following the grind in the assembly elections.
In his letter to the Speaker, Ghosh Dastidar sought permission to register the complaint formally and demanded action against Kalyan Banerjee.
“I seek your permission to file a formal complaint for redress against Lok Sabha Member Kalyan Banerjee, who repeatedly verbally abused me inside the Lok Sabha. This misogyny is directed at many lady members and needs to be punished,” West Bengal’s Barasat MP wrote in her letter.
Neither Banerjee nor the TMC leadership immediately reacted to the complaint.
This came barely a day after the four-term Barasat MP quit all organizational posts in the TMC and launched a scathing political criticism against sections of the party leadership.
However, he continues to be the Barasat MP, which he won on the TMC ticket.
Fault lines within the TMC were exposed after Ghosh Dastidar went public on issues ranging from corruption allegations and the RG Kar rape-murder controversy to the growing influence of political consultancy firm I-PAC on the party machinery.
His resignation from party posts came a day after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari defied the party’s instructions to abstain by attending the administrative review meeting in Kalyani.
Kalyan Banerjee, a four-time Sreerampur MP and one of the party’s most combative parliamentarians, has often courted controversy for her remarks and clashes with colleagues as well as political opponents.
The latest episode also sets the backdrop of past public disputes involving senior TMC leaders like Mahua Moitra, Kirti Azad and Banerjee, revealing the widening rifts within the party following the election reversal.
However, the TMC has publicly stated that the party remains united despite occasional differences between leaders.
