New Delhi, June 12 -- 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. 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. 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. "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. The 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. The crisis and public drama in the party has caught some new leaders unawares....