You could see the West Bengal political undercurrents on full show when the Trinamool Congress MP found himself face to face with a crowd at the airport. A media scrum was in progress when the shouting started, and for once, the MP was having none of it, adding to a day already made for by party infighting.
Those who were there say it was all over before you knew it while Banerjee was with the press. Some folks nearby started up with religious slogans and then ‘chor, chor’. The MP put them in their place, if you will, barking that Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP is the one to be called a thief, and his father for that matter too.
If you look at the video the news has been running, you can see security had to step in and make way for the MP as things got heated. There was a bit of a standoff in the media area until they put some distance between the two and saw him off.
A flashpoint at the airport
It was supposed to be a normal briefing but it didn’t take long for it to become a row. The reports have it that the chanting was aimed right at Banerjee, which did not sit well with the TMC man and he let them have it.
It’s a familiar sort of thing from the streets, where you get this kind of back-and-forth from the other side. This time around, it just shows how the hard line of a campaign can follow you to an airport or any other corner of town.
Internal rift deepens within TMC
The doings at the airport came at a time when the TMC is seeing some division. As the Lok Sabha Chief Whip, Banerjee has been hard on a certain rebel element, telling them to put in their resignations and be done with it, since he doesn’t think much of them.
His charge is that they are making use of their office but have left the rank and file to their own devices. He also put it out there that some of these MPs have been in the company of a top BJP hand like Bhupender Yadav, and to him, that says it all.
Claims of support for NDA surface
Not long before Banerjee was at it, you had Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, a rebel MP, come out and say that some in the Trinamool top brass have written to Speaker Om Birla to put on record their support for the NDA. It makes for a showdown you can feel coming on.
Put those two things together and it’s more than the usual disagreement. With the timing of the airport incident, it looks like a party with its hands full on more than one side.
What the day’s events mean
The scuffle at the airport made for some good cover for Banerjee to put his point across. In taking on his naysayers in person, he was making a case for where he stands on the parliamentary front.
To his critics, it’s a sign of tempers fraying in a high-stakes game. To those with him, it was a necessary response to being put on the spot and to anyone trying to rattle the party’s resolve.
In a nutshell, here is what happened:
– Chants from the protest put a crimp in Banerjee’s time with the media
– The MP was quick to call out Suvendu Adhikari as a thief
– Things got to a point where security had to act at the airport
– Banerjee has no patience for what he calls TMC traitors
– The rebels are said to have been in touch with Bhupender Yadav
Who is Kalyan Banerjee
He is a lawyer first and foremost, but in Parliament you’ll find him as one of the more vocal for the TMC. For the Serampore seat in the Lok Sabha, he’s been there since 2009, and he doesn’t shy away from a legal or political tussle.
Before he was in the thick of politics, he was at the Calcutta High Court. He has made a name for himself with some pointed remarks on the BJP, and that is what you see in his manner of dealing with a confrontation like this one.
What to watch next
What you saw on Tuesday is bound to come up in the next round of meetings and in the papers. When Banerjee goes after those he deems disloyal and you have talk of some leaders moving to the NDA, it leaves you to wonder about the state of discipline in the TMC.
We will have to see if the rebels put their cards on the table or if the top brass puts them in order. The airport has made a quiet problem into something you can’t miss.
