Four-time Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, the man chosen as the Trinamool Congress’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha just a month ago, the person holding press conferences on behalf of the party to quell rebellions by colleagues, has now become a rebel himself.‘Choose between me and Abhishek’: Kalyan Banerjee exposes TMC’s growing fault lines.On Thursday, the 69-year-old mercurial lawyer -turned -lawmaker asked party chief Mamata Banerjee to choose between him and her nephew, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, thus joining forces with the 60-odd legislators and 16 Lok Sabha MPs who have hit out at Abhishek Banerjee’s alleged high-handed ways and cited the Diamond Harbour MP’s behaviour as grounds for revolt.Also read | Kirti Azad says Kalyan Banerjee’s anger is justified but Mamata will ‘set things right’To be sure, Kalyan Banerjee has never been shy of picking a fight or attacking anyone, even Abhishek Banerjee, but his latest outburst will hit the hardest due to its timing -- at a time when the TMC and Mamata Banerjee are fighting for survival.“It’s either him or me”“I have told Derek (O’Brien) that Mamata Banerjee has to choose -- it’s either him (Abhishek Banerjee) or me,’’ he said to HT, “It’s too much arrogance. Look what it has done to the party. I have always said that you can be my leader only when you win Tripura or Goa.” Derek O’Brien, appointed one of the new general secretaries in the midst of the party’s rebellion, told Kalyan Banerjee that he’ll soon get back to him, after consulting Mamata Banerjee.Also read | ‘Don’t treat me like a dustbin’: Kalyan attacks Abhishek Banerjee, warns MamataThe origin of this fight lies in a sudden change in the party’s legal team in a case related to the veracity of signatures by TMC lawmakers. “On Friday, I was handling this case, and then there were raids and I mentioned the case on Wednesday. Suddenly they said, they will send someone else. I have 45 years of experience, they cannot treat me like a dustbin. I waited for work all day and then they decide to send someone called Ayan Bhattacharjee,’’ he said.When asked if the legal case was the only problem, Kalyan Banerjee said that arrogance seeped into every aspect of party functioning and it was now time for the party chief to decide. The last time Kalyan Banerjee spoke so publicly about Abhishek Banerjee was in January 2022, when the Sreerampur MP had said that he only knew Mamata’s model and no Diamond Harbour model, a reference to Abhishek Banerjee’s strategies.On Thursday, Kalyan Banerjee cited that earlier instance to HT, pointing out that he always spoke his mind. Insiders said that the latest fight was more about who handles the TMC’s legal cases, pointing out that Kishore Datta, an associate of Kalyan Banerjee, was earlier the West Bengal advocate general but stepped down in September 2021 after differences with Abhishek Banerjee.Kishore Datta came back in 2023, but Abhishek Banerjee wanted his own trusted legal team to handle his cases, which led to the latest standoff. One senior lawyer, on condition of anonymity, told HT that Mamata Banerjee told them not to assume that Abhishek Banerjee’s instructions were coming from her. While Mamata Banerjee has mollified Kalyan Banerjee in the past, the latest ultimatum, at a time when she’s down, may lead to a more permanent rift.The crisis and public drama in the party has caught some new leaders unawares. Senior advocate and new Rajya Sabha member Menaka Guruswamy told HT how she watched some party colleagues speak for Mamata Banerjee a few days ago and then do a complete flip a few days later.Guruswamy said Mamata Banerjee was speaking with TMC MPs and added that she had a long conversation with the party chief just two days ago.“It is a very sad time that ideologies and values have been rendered fickle and fragile. It is a sad moment for India as a country, as a politicians elected on the mandate of a party and the party’s leader, have run away in this fashion. As a new entrant to Parliament, it makes me very sad for my country,” she said.Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi, who has appeared for the TMC in court on several occasions, said that there was bound to be a revival."BJP cannot exploit what is innately non-existent"“There is no doubt that a large part of the defections in the TMC are out of genuine dissatisfaction and pent up angst. I would go further and add that the BJP cannot exploit what is innately non-existent. But, no one should underestimate the combination of agency misuse, vendetta and threat on one side coupled with enormous misuse of money power on the other as a major contributor..Today the sad truth is that in quantum, degree and scope of both agency and money power misuse, the BJP has exceeded the combined instances of the prior 70 years of Indian democracy,” he said.As Mamata Banerjee battles rebellion from many quarters, the public assertions of support from three of her MPs on Thursday provided some relief.Two Lok Sabha MPs whom the BJP had claimed as rebels -- Shatrughan Sinha and Pratima Mondal -- promised that they were with Mamata Banerjee. “I am issuing a three-line whip to myself -- I was with the TMC and Mamata ji, I am with the TMC and Mamata ji, and I will stay with the TMC and Mamata ji. I have no intention of going anywhere,” Sinha said.“The false news that is being spread is not good, not for the public who elected me in the election, and not for me either. I have not even gone to Delhi,” Mondal told PTI. Former BJP minister and Rajya Sabha MP Babul Supriyo also professed his loyalty to the TMC. “Amidst all this confusion and rumours, I want to make it amply clear that I am neither joining any faction nor any other party. It is inappropriate to abandon a ship when it is in troubled waters,” he said on X. But with Kalyan Banerjee openly issuing an ultimatum and speaking out against Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee may have to address complaints of the latter’s alleged high-handedness in party’s affairs sooner rather than later. The future of the party she founded is at stake.