Responding to Babun Banerjee’s public dissent, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has severed all ties with her younger brother.
“Some people become greedy. I don’t consider him as a family member. We will sever all ties with him. Please don’t use my name with him. Don’t identify him as my brother. We will stick to the candidate whom the party selected,” she said.
Babun Banerjee on Wednesday, 13th March expressed his disappointment over Trinamool Congress’ decision to re-nominate Prasun Banerjee from the Howrah constituency in West Bengal.
Babun, currently in New Delhi, spoke to several media declaring that if needed, he would contest as an Independent from Howrah.
“I am not happy with the selection of the candidate from Howrah Lok Sabha seat. Prasun Banerjee is not the right choice. There were many capable candidates who were overlooked,” he said.
He added, “I know Didi (Mamata Banerjee) would not agree with me. But if needed, I will contest as independent from Howrah Lok Sabha seat.”
Ironically, he had also said that as long as Mamata is there, he would never quit TMC and neither would he join any other party.
Now, Mamata Banerjee has distanced her own brother calling him “greedy”.
“If everybody from my family starts demanding Lok Sabha tickets, then I will also be a dynast politician. This is not the first time but he creates problems before every election. He can go anywhere he wants. I don’t like greedy people,” Mamata said.
She added that there are 32 people in her family and she cannot give tickets to everyone and said that everyone is upset with Babun.
Prasun Banerjee has won twice from Howrah, a seat held by the TMC since 2009. Babun said that he can never forget the insult meted out to him by Prasun, a former footballer.
Prasun Banerjee is also an Arjuna Award winner and also captained the Indian national football team.
Babun or Swapan Banerjee has also been a sportsperson. In 2016, he was the secretary of the Bengal Olympic Association. He is also the football secretary of Mohun Bagan Athletic Club.
As per reports, in January 2022, Mamata had reprimanded Babun publicly for “roaming around with a Covid case at home”.
The showdown comes 3 days after the TMC announced the names of all 42 candidates for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
Earlier, Banerjee had announced that TMC would contest the General Elections alone though the party is part of I.N.D.I. Alliance.
Some of the notable names on the list include expelled MP Mahua Moitra and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan among others.