KOLKATA: Senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Tuesday left the Martyrs’ Day rally venue in Kolkata immediately after his nearly 23-minute speech amid reports of a verbal exchange with party supremo Mamata Banerjee over exceeding his allotted speaking time.
TMC sources said Mamata pulled up Kalyan for delivering a long speech despite her prior instructions to make the addresses shorter so that others can get time to speak at the rally organised to commemorate the killing of 13 Youth Congress workers in police firing on July 21, 1993 when the Left Front ruling West Bengal.
“Kalyan addressed the rally for about 23 minutes. So several party MPs, including Mahua Moitra, Kriti Azad and Dola Sen, could not get an opportunity to speak. Mamata and Kalyan got involved in an exchange of words over the longer speech,” said a TMC leader.
Kalyan came out of the dais and left for his Kalighat house from the venue. He did not even wait for Mamata to address in the rally causing an embarrassment to the party. Party sources said Mamata came to the venue when Kalyan was speaking.
After a pause, the MP resumed his address. The party supremo asked him to finish his speech but he allegedly ignored her instruction, and continued speaking for nearly 23 minutes, launching an attack on the BJP and the breakaway TMC faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee. Kalyan denied any spat with Mamata.
In her speech, Mamata urged the Congress and CPI(M) to unite against the BJP in Bengal under the INDIA bloc, even as her party’s organisational split played out with rival Martyrs’ Day rallies being held by her faction and rebels.