Srerampur: It’s not just an electoral battle, but a personal showdown in West Bengal’s Srerampur Lok Sabha constituency—between a father and his former son-in-law. Here, the personal has become political, with incumbent Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee openly sharing the bitter saga of his daughter’s marriage and subsequent divorce to BJP candidate Kabir Shankar Bose.
Addressing a gathering of women from an open jeep while campaigning last week, Banerjee recounted his struggles as a father.
“For 18 years I lived with my family under a small roof in Kolkata. I have faced many hardships to raise my daughter,” he said. “She faced the toughest challenge of her life and today she got the courage to stand up on her feet. I pray to God, no daughter in this country faces such a challenge.”
For the three-time MP and close aide to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, his ex-son-in-law’s candidacy in Srerampur—which covers parts of Hooghly and Howrah districts—has struck a raw nerve. He also claims that it was his own influence that launched Bose’s political career in this region.
“It shows the nasty mindset of the BJP to set him up against me,” Banerjee told ThePrint as he sat at a Jagannath Temple after his morning roadshow. “He (Kabir Shankar Bose) has no identity. You know how people recall him? As Kalyan Banerjee’s ex-son-in-law. He has not done any work for Srerampur, he has no connection with Srerampur, he held my hand first and came to Srerampur. He has got a ticket because I am his ex-father-in-law.”
Banerjee added that he was confident he would win the fourth term in Lok Sabha, which would make him the longest-serving MP of Srerampur so far.
Meanwhile, Bose said that he chose to rise above the personal mudslinging, but did blame Banerjee for the breakdown of his former marriage.
“I cannot stoop low like Kalyan Banerjee,” Bose told ThePrint. “He is asking for votes by speaking about his daughter’s marriage with me. I have not once spoken about my personal ties to seek votes. The fight is political, not personal. But you must ask Kalyan Banerjee, his daughter has remarried, then why is he still talking about me? He is the reason why his daughter’s life was spoiled. His interference has created rumblings in her new marriage as well. Just like it did in our case.”
Other than their mutual rancour, the common thread that ties Banerjee, his daughter, and Bose is that all three are practicing lawyers. It’s what got the former couple together in 2010. Sources close to the family told ThePrint on condition of anonymity that a Trinamool leader had also intervened to save the marriage, but the couple eventually decided to part ways in 2015. Their 10-year-old son continues to live with his mother in Kolkata. Though both have remarried, the past still seems fresh in the political campaign for Srerampur.
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A history of political clashes
While Kabir Shankar Bose tends to avoid discussing his personal issues on the campaign trail, he aggressively targets Kalyan Banerjee in his rallies.
“Kalyan Banerjee has only done kalyan (welfare) for himself, not for the people of Srerampur ,” said Bose at a rally in Srerampur last week.
Armed with a law degree from the UK’s Nottingham University and awarded the title of Barrister-at-Law by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, London in 2007, along with an MBA from Switzerland, the 40-year-old Bose is a practicing counsel in the Supreme Court. But although he is a resident of New Delhi (he is an enrolled voter of the city’s Kasturba Nagar), this isn’t the first election he is fighting in West Bengal.
In the 2021 state elections, the BJP fielded him from the Srerampore assembly constituency, but he lost to Trinamool’s DrSudipto Roy by over 23,000 votes. During that period too, the shadow of his former marriage loomed large.
In January 2021, the Supreme Court stayed two criminal cases against him—filed by Srerampur Police for allegedly attacking and molesting Trinamool Congress workers in December 2020. His lawyer, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, argued that the charges were fabricated at the behest of his former father-in-law Kalyan Banerjee.
Supporting Bose’s defense, the CISF, which provided him security since he became the party’s spokesperson in 2019, submitted a “movement register” to the court showing he wasn’t present at the alleged incident locations. In his petition, Bose claimed that after he filed for annulment of marriage from Banerjee’s daughter and joined the BJP, his former father-in-law had been seeking his arrest.
‘I’ve already won’
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee strongly backs 66-year-old Kalyan Banerjee, who is not just a key political ally but her next-door neighbour in Kolkata’s Kalighat.
“Kalyan Banerjee is my all-weather friend, he is like my brother. He shouts while speaking, what a strong voice he has, my god! When he speaks in Parliament, if 400 of them stand up against him, they can’t silence his voice. He is a fighter, he will continue to fight from here,” she proclaimed, lifting his hand at a Jagatballavpur rally Saturday.
Banerjee also acknowledges Mamata “as the last word” in the Trinamool Congress and maintains she is the only leader of the party. He had also affirmed this on camera in 2022, becoming the voice of the party’s old guard amid the rise of Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, who is viewed as a new power centre.
Kalyan Banerjee first won an MLA seat in 2001 from Asansol Uttar but lost in 2006. However, he secured the Srerampur parliamentary seat in 2009 and won it in the two subsequent elections as well. A seasoned litigator, he often represents the state government in the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court, where he began his legal career. His portfolio includes high-profile cases like the Rizwanur Rehman death (who was allegedly driven to suicide by his Hindu in-laws), jute mill worker Bhikhari Paswan’s custodial death when the Left government was in power, and more recently, the alleged SSC scam.
Last December, after being suspended from Parliament along with other opposition leaders, Banerjee mimicked Vice President and Upper House chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on the Parliament steps, eliciting laughter from Rahul Gandhi.
Months later, he still defends his actions: “Mimicry is a (form of) freedom of expression. I was practicing an art form. But then Dhankhar ji wished me on my birthday and invited my wife and me for dinner,” he told ThePrint.
Banerjee remains confident about his return to Parliament in June. “People rejected the BJP in 2021. They see their lies,” he said. “I’m not just confident of a win—I’ve already won.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)