The Trinamool Congress has expelled MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha for engaging in anti-party actions. This decision was conveyed to them via email, WhatsApp, and to West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Basu. The expulsion occurred shortly after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari revealed that the two MLAs had reported a case of Assembly signature forgery to the Speaker.
The Assembly Secretariat lodged a complaint with the police based on the MLAs’ report. Following this, the Trinamool Congress swiftly expelled Ritabrata and Sandipan for failing to attend party meetings, participating in anti-party activities, and making critical statements against the party. Post-expulsion, the MLAs will be considered ‘non-party’ members and will not be bound by the party’s directives in various matters.
Ritabrata, who had a similar experience in the past, was previously a Rajya Sabha MP with the CPI(M) until his expulsion in 2017. He later served as an independent MP before joining Trinamool and winning an Assembly seat this year. The party’s decision to expel the two MLAs led to public remarks by party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, criticizing the act as disloyalty and questioning the MLAs’ motives for contesting elections.
The Trinamool Congress encountered challenges in determining key positions in the Assembly post-election. Despite initial decisions on leadership roles, the Speaker rejected the party’s nominations due to procedural issues. The CID’s involvement in investigating a signature scandal involving several MLAs further complicated matters, with discrepancies emerging in signatures and meeting dates.
