Mimicry row: Kalyan Banerjee is old-time Mamata lieutenant, voice of TMC old guard

It’s the advice others might give when it comes to the 66-year-old lawyer-turned-leader, who has been among the oldest colleagues of Mamata Banerjee since she formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998, and as caustic an opponent of the party’s rivals.

Now a TMC MP from Serampore in Hooghly district, Kalyan Banerjee first won an Assembly election back in 2001 from Asansol Uttar. He lost in 2006, and by 2009, had moved on to Parliament. He is now a three-time MP from Serampore.

Alongside, Kalyan has proved a useful advocate for his party when it comes to tricky legal cases, representing it in various high-profile suits in the Calcutta High Court, where he has practised since 1981. Among the cases he has handled are the Rizwanur Rahman case (who was allegedly driven to suicide by his influential Hindu in-laws), the Nandigram and Singur land agitations – all of which helped the TMC’s rise against the Left Front – and the Chhota Angaria massacre of TMC activists. Kalyan also took up the Bhikari Paswan case, involving a custodial death.

Even before the TMC came to power, Kalyan often made news. In 2009, he attributed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s frequent visits to a film and cultural centre to his affinity to Scotch whiskey.

In 2015, senior BJP leader and then in-charge of the party’s affairs in West Bengal, Siddharth Nath Singh, sent Kalyan a legal notice over allegedly defamatory and libelous statements not just against him but also his family members.

During Dhankhar’s rocky tenure as West Bengal Governor (2019-2022), Kalyan was often the prime instigator from the TMC side. On May 7, 2021, after Dhankar sanctioned the prosecution of TMC ministers based on a request by the CBI, Kalyan said: “He is a bloodsucker. He is trying to suck the blood of the Trinamool Congress.” Days later, the TMC MP threatened to move against Dhankhar after he was no longer the Governor and did not enjoy legal immunity.

Lately, Kalyan is seen as the voice of the old brigade in the TMC, chafing at the rise of Abhishek Banerjee as Mamata’s heir apparent. In January 2022, he criticised what was highlighted as ‘the Diamond Harbour model’, named after the constituency of Abhishek, in fighting Covid. “Why were football tournaments organised by the MP in Diamond Harbour at the start of the New Year if he was serious about COVID management?” Kalyan said in a direct attack on Abhishek.

Kalyan has often said that Mamata is the last word in the party and in West Bengal. “Who will understand what the public wants more than Mamata Banerjee? The party’s policies are decided by Mamata Banerjee, the state’s policies are decided by Mamata Banerjee. One should do no such work, directly or indirectly, which does not have Mamata’s signature,” he often says, talking the same line recently when a debate was stoked by Abhishek’s camp on an upper age limit for MPs and MLAs.

How does the TMC view the latest row involving Dhankhar, which took some of the sting off the Opposition’s campaign against the government over the mass suspension of its MPs from Parliament? Many in the party will be watching for the signs.