Priyanka Gandhi - standing before the Parliament complex, clasping hands in front of her - appeared to be nodding in agreement. Then lifted a finger at the poster and asked if it's the same at the back.
"Yes," Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee responded.
"Turn and show," Gandhi asked the 69-year-old Trinamool MP, pointing him towards the waiting posse of photojournalists.
"They have come for you. I am done," the Trinamool MP said, deflecting attention from him.
As the Trinamool MP was leaving, he praised the Congress leader for a good speech.
"You spoke very well yesterday," Kalyan Banerjee, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist, said with a thumbs up.
"Thank you," she answered.
At this point, a reporter asked, "What have you brought, Kalyan Banerjee?" referring to the poster.
"The photo of 20 traitors," Banerjee said, with the poster on his front and back carrying the pictures of rebel Trinamool Lok Sabha MPs.
#Watch | A Poster Of "20 Traitors" And Priyanka Gandhi-Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee's Banter pic.twitter.com/AJxjHrZVhu
— NDTV (@ndtv) July 30, 2026
At least 20 of the 28 Trinamool members in the Lok Sabha have formed a group under the leadership of MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar to move away from Mamata Banerjee's party. The MPs joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), until now an unknown entity, and expressed their allegiance to NDA. It is these rebel leaders that the Trinamool calls as "gaddar" (traitors).
The list of MPs include Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Rachna Banerjee, Jagadish Chandra Barma, Partha Bhowmick, Arup Chakraborty, Adhikari Deepak Dev, Sayani Ghosh, Bapi Haldar, Abu Taher Khan, Kalipada Saren Kherwal, Asit Kumar, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, and a few others.
A meeting of the NDA parliamentary party was held at the Parliament House complex on Tuesday with attendance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top Union ministers. The meeting, 'Mangal Milan', was also attended by MPs who rebelled against Trinamool Congress leadership and joined the NCPI.
When Kalyan Banerjee was asked where are the rebel MPs, he said," Right here- inside Parliament, sitting next to Modiji."
What should happen with these MPs, someone prodded.
"This should be treated as a case of defection; a defection petition has been filed. It's been five weeks, yet nothing has happened - but then again, anything goes under BJP rule," Kalyan Banerjee said.
As the exchange continued, Priyanka Gandhi, flanked by Congress MP, stood there listening.
She intervened at this point, highlighting that "some MPs went from our side to yours and then to the BJP."
"Those people won on our ticket; your people had left your fold back in 2014. You had - and still have - no presence in Bengal; that is why they never entered Parliament on your ticket," Banerjee said.
Pappu Yadav, an Independent MP, jumped into the conversation.
"Still Congress is there," Yadav said.
Trinamool MP said he too was part of the Congress at one point in time.
"I was in the Congress too; I was the Vice President of the Youth Congress. You people drove Mamata (Banerjee) Didi away. If you hadn't driven Didi away, you wouldn't be in this state. You drove Didi away in 1997," Kalyan Banerjee said.
Priyanka Gandhi intervened again, and said that Mamata Banerjee was treated well in Congress.
"Rajiv (Gandhi) ji respected Mamata (Banerjee) ji lot," she said.
Kalyan Banerjee agreed.
"I know. Rajiv ji used to like Didi a lot, he really respected her," Banerjee said, pointing out that the Congress got together with the CPM, against whom they were fighting.
Priyanka Gandhi stood there nodding.
A fellow Congress leader pointed to something, and Priyanka, nodding in the direction of Banerjee, exited the scene.
And the MPs followed Gandhi.
Kalyan Banerjee, with a smile, turned to the reporters, with the poster still hanging around his neck.
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