Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday expelled two of its MLAs — Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha — citing “anti-party activities”. The decision came just minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari publicly claimed that several ruling party legislators had informed him that their signatures were forged on documents linked to the election of the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.
The twin expulsions have intensified speculation about internal unrest within the TMC at a time when the party is already facing scrutiny over the ongoing CID investigation into alleged discrepancies in legislators’ signatures. While the ruling party maintained that disciplinary action was taken for organisational reasons, opposition leaders immediately linked the move to the widening signature controversy.
Announcing the decision, the Trinamool Congress said the two legislators had been removed from the party for engaging in activities that were contrary to party interests. In its statement, the party described their conduct as “anti-party activities”, signalling that the leadership viewed the matter as a serious breach of discipline.
The timing of the announcement immediately drew political attention. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had alleged that multiple TMC MLAs had approached him claiming that signatures attributed to them on Assembly-related documents were not genuine. Adhikari suggested that the controversy was much larger than initially believed and indicated that more revelations could emerge as investigations progressed.
According to political sources, the alleged forged-signature issue centres on documents connected to the process of selecting the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. Questions were raised after some legislators reportedly expressed doubts over signatures appearing in their names. The matter eventually led to a formal investigation, with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the allegations.
TMC MLA Ritabrata Banerjee informed Assembly Speaker regarding ‘forged signatures’
The forged-signature controversy inside the Trinamool Congress took a dramatic turn after expelled MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha reportedly informed Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose that signatures collected on May 19 were being shown as if they had been signed during a May 6 meeting. According to the two legislators, the May 6 meeting at Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence had not passed any formal resolution regarding the selection of the Leader of the Opposition. They alleged that when signatures were later collected on May 19, legislators were allegedly asked to mention the earlier date, creating the basis of the present dispute.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari later claimed that it was the written complaint submitted by Ritabrata and Sandipan to the Speaker that led to the Assembly Secretariat filing a police complaint and the subsequent CID investigation into the alleged signature discrepancies. Minutes after Adhikari publicly named the two MLAs, the Trinamool Congress expelled them for alleged anti-party activities. Following the expulsion, both leaders defended their actions, arguing that they had approached the Speaker in his constitutional capacity as the guardian of the Assembly and not as a representative of any political party.
