‘You Took Them From Congress’: Priyanka Gandhi-Kalyan Banerjee Banter Outside Parliament Over Rebel MPs

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and suspended TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee traded light-hearted political jibes outside Parliament on Thursday as the Trinamool continued its protest against 20 rebel MPs who recently joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

Banerjee, suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the Monsoon Session, was protesting near Makar Dwar with a placard carrying photographs of the rebel MPs when Priyanka Gandhi walked up to him.

‘You Took Them From Congress To TMC’

Priyanka Gandhi first noticed the placard hanging around Banerjee’s neck and asked whether it carried the same photographs on the back.

When Banerjee replied, “Yes,” she smiled and told him, “Turn and show,” pointing towards photographers nearby.

Asked about the placard, Banerjee said it carried the “photo of 20 traitors”, referring to the TMC MPs who switched to the NCPI and extended support to the NDA.

Priyanka Gandhi then quipped: “You took them from Congress to TMC.”

Banerjee responded that the MPs had contested elections on Trinamool tickets. When another MP pointed out that several of them had originally been with the Congress, Banerjee conceded the point.

“Initially I was in Congress too,” he said, drawing laughter from those around him.

‘Rajiv Gandhi Respected Didi’

Banerjee then turned the conversation towards Mamata Banerjee’s own history with the Congress. “You people forced Didi (Mamata Banerjee) to leave in 1997,” he said.

Priyanka Gandhi responded by invoking former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“Rajiv (Gandhi) ji respected Didi a lot,” she said.

Banerjee agreed, saying, “I know. Rajiv ji used to like Didi a lot. He really respected her.”

He also argued that the Congress later joined hands with the CPI(M), despite the Trinamool’s long-standing political battle against the Left in West Bengal.

Congress MP Pappu Yadav then asked Banerjee whether the Congress was standing with the TMC in the current crisis, to which Banerjee agreed.

TMC Presses Speaker On Rebel MPs

The exchange came amid a larger confrontation over the fate of the 20 MPs who broke away from the Trinamool Congress.

Among them are former TMC chief whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, deputy leader Shatabdi Ray, Deepak Adhikari and Saayoni Ghosh.

TMC parliamentary party leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking an early hearing on disqualification petitions against the rebel MPs.

He said more than five weeks had passed since the petitions were filed, but no notices had been issued and no hearings scheduled, calling the delay “a matter of grave concern”.

The TMC maintains that the MPs are liable for disqualification under the anti-defection law and has urged the Speaker to act under Paragraph 6 of the Tenth Schedule.

The Priyanka-Kalyan exchange offered a lighter moment amid that escalating political battle, while also underlining just how intertwined the Congress and Trinamool’s political histories remain.