Kalyan Banerjee leaves TMC rally after 'long' speech amid reports of exchange with Mamata

Kolkata, Senior TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee left the Martyrs' Day rally immediately after his nearly 23-minute speech on Tuesday amid reports of a verbal exchange with party supremo Mamata Banerjee over exceeding his allotted speaking time, though he denied any altercation and said he had other engagements.

According to sources in the Mamata Banerjee camp, the list of speakers at the rally near Birla Planetarium area 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 Banerjee, 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.

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.

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.

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.

As several prominent former loyalists, including Firhad Hakim, Mala Roy and Chandrima Bhattacharya, shifted to the rival faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, Kalyan Banerjee continued to be counted among Mamata Banerjee's closest political confidants, frequently attending meetings at her Kalighat residence and emerging as one of the strongest public voices against the rebels.

The outspoken MP has repeatedly attacked the breakaway camp, accusing it of working at the BJP's behest.

At Tuesday's rally too, he dismissed the rival July 21 programme organised by the rebels as a "BJP-sponsored" event and asserted that grassroots Trinamool workers continued to stand firmly with Mamata Banerjee.

Kalyan Banerjee, however, has had occasional differences within the party.

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.