TMC Expels MLAs Sandipan Saha & Ritabrata Banerjee For 6 Years Over Anti-Party Activities Amid Forged Signature Row

Kokata: The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) leadership has expelled two prominent legislators, Sandipan Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee, from the party for a period of six years. 

The decision comes after serious allegations of "anti-party activities" and persistent public statements openly challenging the party's central leadership, signalling a growing internal rift within the ruling party of West Bengal.

The formal expulsion orders were issued late Monday evening following a high-level disciplinary committee meeting chaired by senior party leaders.

Profiles of the Expelled Leaders

1. Sandipan Saha: 

Newly elected MLA from the Entally Assembly constituency in Kolkata, the son of veteran politician Swarna Kamal Saha.

2. Ritabrata Banerjee: 

State President of the All India Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) and former Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha).

The internal friction became highly visible after Sandipan Saha publicly questioned the functioning, strategic silence, and media handling of the party's top brass. 

Referencing local organisational setbacks and a string of resignations within regional units, Saha had openly stated that the party’s future was heading into uncertain darkness.

His sharp critique of the top leadership, using phrases that accused certain factions of abandoning the rank-and-file, quickly went viral across regional media networks, creating substantial embarrassment for the ruling dispensation.

Simultaneously, Ritabrata Banerjee, who heads the party's influential trade union wing, fell out of favour with the high command due to overlapping organisational conflicts and reports of building an autonomous power centre within the labour unions.

Insiders reveal that Banerjee had been increasingly operating independent of the party's core directives, fostering fractionalism in key industrial belts of the state.