CM Adhikari Orders Probe Into Rs 635-Crore ‘Ad Scam’ Linked to Mamata Banerjee as TMC Collapses From Within

The political landscape in West Bengal is shifting rapidly, and Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is wasting no time targeting the financial underbelly of the previous regime. In his latest and most aggressive move since taking office, Adhikari has ordered a full-scale investigation into a Kolkata-based advertising agency heavily linked to former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. At the center of the probe is an alleged Rs 635-crore advertisement scam that the new administration openly labels as an outright "looting of public money."

State investigators are currently scrutinising 20 specific transactions that funneled the Rs 635 crore into three bank accounts tied to the agency over the last few years. Given the massive scale of the funds involved, the Adhikari administration is already preparing to hand the case over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to track potential money laundering, a move that could spell severe legal jeopardy for Banerjee's inner circle.

This crackdown comes as a devastating blow to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is currently in a state of freefall. Still reeling from its historic defeat in the state assembly elections, the party is fracturing from within. Banerjee's 15-year dominance over Bengal politics collapsed in a little over a month, and the fallout has been catastrophic for her organization.

In the state assembly, the rebellion is already a rout. More than two-thirds of the TMC’s elected legislators, 58 out of 80 MLAs, have broken away completely, securing formal recognition as the principal opposition bloc under Ritabrata Banerjee. The rebel faction claims their ranks are only growing. Meanwhile, a parallel mutiny has struck the party in New Delhi, where a rebel bloc led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claims to have stripped away more than 20 Lok Sabha MPs from the official party line.

By launching a high-stakes financial corruption probe while the TMC is fighting for its survival on two legislative fronts, Adhikari is signaling that his administration intends to dismantle what remains of Banerjee's political apparatus rather than let it recover.

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