Asish Banerjee, a veteran leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and a close aide of West Bengal’s former Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee, was found dead at a party office located next to his home in the Rampurhat town of West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Sunday morning, the police said.
The former deputy speaker of the West Bengal Assembly, according to police, was found hanging inside the office. The police sent his body for autopsy and have since begun delving into the circumstances surrounding his death.
Asish Banerjee
Handwritten note recovered from scene
As per police, they found a handwritten note near the body. Local reports quoted the note as saying, “No one is responsible for my death,” although the note’s contents could not be verified independently.
In the purported suicide note, Banerjee is also said to have expressed deep regret over entering politics and advised his younger kin to keep politics at bay. He also suggested that they concentrate on their respective professions.
He reportedly denied any involvement in corruption and said that while he could not accept what he termed the party’s ‘wrongdoing,’ he had never been able to speak out against it.
He also addressed allegations concerning the Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority (TRDA), claiming that he had no substantive authority there beyond attending general meetings.
Crowd gathers outside TMC office
He went on to say that he was not part of the tender committee, had no authority to sign cheques and was not involved in approving plans or issuing no-objection certificates.
Furthermore, he alleged that attempts had been made to malign and belittle him. Notably, Banerjee had lost the Rampurhat seat to BJP’s Dhruba Saba in the state election in early 2026.
Post-death, a large crowd gathered outside the TMC office after the news of his demise spread. Banerjee had stepped down as chairman of the TMC’s Birbhum district core committee in June, although he said he would continue as an ordinary member of the party.
Abhishek Banerjee targets ‘Smear Campaign’
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee reacted strongly to Asish’s death, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and sections of the media of running a smear campaign against the Birbhum leader.
He said the purported suicide note recovered from the spot raises ‘serious and troubling questions’ about the campaign Banerjee claimed to have endured, arguing that allegations were being amplified and reputations had been put on trial before the truth was established.
The development surfaces as a significant one amid a major political shift in West Bengal, after the TMC conceded defeat to the BJP after being in power in the state for 15 years. Several former MLAs and leaders of the TMC are facing corruption-related arrests and investigations.