CRACKS WIDE OPEN IN TMC

Mahua's spat with TMC colleague at Nirvachan Sadan turns ugly | BJP leaks WhatsApp exchange between party MPs on social media | Party supremo Mamata Banerjee miffed by fight between party MPs

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has a history of being involved in unsavory incidents, has hit the headlines once again.

This time, an altercation and a public spat with her senior party colleague and chief whip Kalyan Banerjee within the precincts of Nirvachan Sadan has gone viral.

The fight escalated when senior Trinamool MP Saugata Roy publicly attempted to support Moitra. He was hit by a fusillade of allegations of impropriety by Kalyan Banerjee. Another party MP Kirti Azad and Kalyan Banerjee engaged in a WhatsApp message war. Moitra, Banerjee and Kirti Azad were part of a party delegation that went to the Election Commission to protest against the issue of duplicate EPIC and Aadhaar linkage to voter IDs on April 4.

According to Trinamool Congress sources, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is "extremely upset" after videos of the public spat between MPs of her party were leaked. She has asked all party MPs to calm down and refrain from giving any interviews. "No MP should fan this crisis any further," the Trinamool chief reportedly told her party members on Tuesday.

In a major embarrassment to Trinamool, the BJP shared the videos and leaked screenshots of the fiery WhatsApp exchange among the prominent lawmakers of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

BJP's IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, who posted videos and WhatsApp chats on X, claimed that senior Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee and another unidentified party lawmaker engaged in a heated argument.

According to Malviya, the incident took place on April 4 at the Election Commission of India headquarters, where the Trinamool delegation had gone to submit a representation.

In a cheeky comment, Malviya gave Mamata Banerjee four options from among her party MPs to choose who had leaked the embarrassing videos.