The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday expelled two of its MLAs, Sandipan Saha and Ritabrata Banerjee, with immediate effect over anti-party activities. The development comes amid a growing buzz over discontent within party leaders following the TMC's ousting from power after the 2026 assembly elections in West Bengal.
In a statement, the TMC said Saha and Banerjee failed to attend Sunday's meeting called at party supremo Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence in Kolkata, adding that it has been observed the two leaders made statements that were "prejudicial to the interests" of the Trinamool.
"After due consideration of the matter, the competent authority of AITC has decided to expel you from the (primary) membership of the Party with immediate effect," the TMC's statement read. "Consequently, you shall cease to hold any position, responsibility, or privilege associated with the Party from the date of issuance of this notice."
Ritabrata, a former Rajya Sabha MP who joined TMC in 2017 after switching from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was elected to the West Bengal Assembly from the Uluberia Purba constituency. He had defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rudra Prasad Banerjee by a margin of over 11,800 votes.
Talking about Sandipan, he is an MLA from Entally. Sandipan, son of former TMC MLA Swarna Kamal Saha, had defeated BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal by more than 34,000 votes in the recently held assembly polls in the state.
Both Sandipan and Ritabrata were among the 60 MLAs who failed to attend the Sunday's meeting. Earlier in the day, Sandipan defended his decision and said the meeting at Mamata's residence was called without following the appropriate procedures. He also questioned TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee over 'fake signature' probe.
"A meeting has been held before. It included a resolution on who would be the party leader, deputy leader, and chief whip. Now, despite being in power for 15 years, this resolution was submitted to the Assembly without following the procedures. Then, it was scrutinised because the process wasn't followed as per protocol. Now, the subjudice has been passed. Now, another meeting has been called. Was this meeting called after reviewing the procedures?" Sandipan told news agency ANI.
Coming to Sunday's meeting, only 20 out of 80 TMC legislators attended it. The party clarified that the MLAs failed to attend the meeting because of the attack on Abhishek in Sonarpur last week. Later, Mamata met those who visited her residence and held informal talks.
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