KOLKATA — Veteran Trinamool Congress leader and former West Bengal Assembly Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee was found dead inside a party office adjoining his home in Rampurhat, Birbhum district, on Sunday morning, triggering shock across West Bengal’s political establishment.
Police said Banerjee’s body was found hanging inside the Trinamool Congress office in Hattalapara, under Ward 5 of Rampurhat Municipality. A purported suicide note was recovered from the scene, and the body was sent for post-mortem examination. Investigators have not yet formally concluded the cause of death.
The death of the five-time lawmaker comes just months after Trinamool Congress lost power in West Bengal to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 Assembly election, ending 15 years of TMC rule. Banerjee himself lost Rampurhat, a constituency he had represented continuously since 2001, to BJP candidate Dhruba Saha.
For readers in Bangladesh, the development is significant because West Bengal remains Bangladesh’s closest Indian state culturally, linguistically and geographically, and political changes there often draw considerable attention across the border.
Purported note denies corruption
The note reportedly recovered from the office has become central to the investigation and political reaction surrounding Banerjee’s death.
According to police sources cited by The New Indian Express, Banerjee wrote: “I was never involved in corruption. It was a blunder to join politics.” The note also reportedly said that no one was responsible for his death and advised younger members of his family to stay away from politics.
Banerjee, who had a long career as a teacher before becoming a full-time politician, also reportedly reflected on his inability to challenge wrongdoing within his own party.
“I was involved with politics since my student life. But I was never involved in corruptions in my life,” he wrote, according to the reported contents of the note. He added that although he disagreed with some actions within the party, he had been unable to protest against them.
The authenticity of the letter is still subject to police verification, and authorities have not said that every claim contained in it has been independently established.
TRDA allegations feature prominently
A substantial portion of the purported note reportedly concerns the Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority, or TRDA, where Banerjee had served as chairperson.
He appears to have been responding to allegations surrounding alleged financial and administrative irregularities linked to the authority.
According to India Today, Banerjee wrote that he had no role in tender decisions, cheque issuance, building-plan approvals or no-objection certificates.
“In TRDA, no files were given to me for 3.5 years. I was not in the Tender Committee, nor did I have cheque-signing power. I did not issue plan approvals or No Objection Certificates,” he reportedly wrote.
He also claimed that efforts had been made to malign him and said he had never accepted money in return for official work.
“Throughout my life, I have never taken a single penny in exchange for doing any work,” the note said, according to India Today.
The remarks are particularly sensitive because West Bengal’s new political landscape has been accompanied by investigations into alleged corruption involving figures associated with the former TMC government.
A day earlier, he had attended Independence Day event
Banerjee’s death came a day after he participated in an Independence Day program in Rampurhat and hoisted the Indian national flag there, according to Indian media reports.
There had been no public indication from that appearance that he was facing an immediate personal crisis.
Police are now examining the circumstances preceding his death, including the note, his recent political activities and other relevant evidence. The post-mortem report is expected to help establish the medical cause of death.
Long political career ended with 2026 defeat
Banerjee was one of Trinamool Congress’s longest-serving legislators in Birbhum.
He represented Rampurhat for five consecutive terms from 2001 until 2026 and served as West Bengal Assembly Deputy Speaker from 2021 until the end of the previous Assembly’s term in May this year. He also held ministerial responsibilities under former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, including agriculture and other portfolios. Before entering full-time politics, he worked as an associate professor at Rampurhat College.
In this year’s Assembly election, however, Banerjee lost Rampurhat to BJP candidate Dhruba Saha by around 24,000 votes.
The defeat came as part of a much larger political reversal for Mamata Banerjee’s party. The BJP won more than two-thirds of the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, while the TMC fell from 215 seats to 80. Mamata Banerjee also lost her own constituency.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari subsequently became chief minister, marking the first time the party formed a government in West Bengal.
Banerjee had stepped back from party responsibilities
Even before the election defeat, Banerjee had shown signs of distancing himself from some organizational responsibilities.
Earlier this year, he resigned as chairman of the Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum district core committee amid concerns over how the local party organization was functioning. He nevertheless remained a general member of the party.
After losing his Assembly seat, reports indicated that his political activity had declined.
Those developments have inevitably prompted speculation about the pressures he may have faced, but police have not publicly linked any particular political dispute, corruption investigation or electoral setback to his death.
Abhishek Banerjee raises questions over alleged ‘smear campaign’
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee reacted strongly to the death, saying the contents of the purported final note raised questions about the way allegations had been directed at the former lawmaker.
“The tragic death of former MLA and former Dy Speaker of WBLA Asish Banerjee is not merely heartbreaking,” Abhishek wrote on X on Sunday.
In a longer statement, he described Banerjee as a lifelong teacher and public servant who had served people “with honesty, dignity and simplicity,” and criticized what he called a campaign of allegations and public vilification before facts had been established.
His comments sought to place the death within the broader political confrontation between the former ruling party and the new BJP administration.
The BJP, however, has called for the circumstances of the death to be properly investigated.
Dhruba Saha, the BJP legislator who defeated Banerjee in Rampurhat, said he had visited Banerjee’s home after the election to seek his blessings.
“The people of Rampurhat and Birbhum want to know the truth. We want a proper investigation into his death,” Saha said, according to PTI.
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