Days After Mimicry Row, Dhankhar Wishes TMC's Kalyan Banerjee on B'day, Invites Him For Dinner

In a rare show of political comradery, Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee thanked Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar for the latter’s wishes on his birthday. The TMC leader said the Rajya Sabha Chairman has invited him and his wife for dinner at his residence in Delhi.

Taking to X, Banerjee wrote, “I thank Hon’ble VP for his warm greetings on my Birthday. I’m overwhelmed that he personally had a telephone conversation with my wife and conveyed his blessings to my entire family. He also invited my wife and me to have dinner at his residence in Delhi with his family.”

This came days after the TMC leader stirred a row by mimicking the Rajya Sabha Chairman, while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi filmed the act on his phone, during a protest by MPs suspended during the winter session of Parliament at the complex’s Makar Dwar.

At the time, Banerjee termed his mimicry of Dhankhar an “art form”, and asserted that he would continue to do so a “thousand times” and that he had a “fundamental right to do so”.

Later, in an apparent reference to the mimicry incident, Dhankhar described himself as a “sufferer” and asserted that despite taking all affronts and insults, one must never deviate from the path of service.

He also said that one must give space to the points of view of others but people must show their “spinal strength” when views are presented with a design to derail others from their path.

Relations between the Trinamool Congress party leaders and Dhankhar plummeted while the latter was serving as the governor of West Bengal before assuming the post of Vice President.