Former Trinamool Congress MLA and former Deputy Speaker from Rampurhat, Ashish Banerjee, was found dead under mysterious circumstances on Sunday morning.
His body was recovered hanging inside the party office adjacent to his residence, and a suicide note was also found. Ashish’s body has been sent for a post-mortem examination.
During Mamata Banerjee‘s tenure, Ashish served as the Deputy Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. He was a five-time MLA from Rampurhat. In the 2026 Assembly elections, he lost to BJP candidate Dhruba Saha.
”Primarily it’s a suicide case. We have found a suicide note in which he has written, ‘No one is responsible for my death,'” Birbhum SP Vidit Raj Bhundesh told The Indian Express.
Ashish lived in Hattalapara in Ward No. 5 of Rampurhat. A party office was attached to his house. A crowd gathered in the area on Sunday morning after his body was recovered from there. Police from the Rampurhat police station arrived at the scene, recovered the body, and sent it for an autopsy.
Ashish, a veteran TMC leader, served as the MLA for Rampurhat from 2001 to 2026. After Trinamool came to power in the state, he secured a place in Mamata’s cabinet multiple times, previously serving as the state’s School Education Minister and Agriculture Minister. However, he did not receive any larger responsibilities in the cabinet beyond these. When Anubrata Mondal was the Birbhum district TMC president, Ashish was his associate, though he had limited opportunities to rise in district politics due to Anubrata’s influence.
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