Kolkata: As the Trinamool Congress on Monday announced the expulsion of two of its legislators in West Bengal, namely Sandipan Saha from Entally Assembly constituency in North Kolkata and Ritabrata Banerjee from Uluberia (Purba) in Howrah district, Banerjee becomes one of the rare breeds of politicians to be expelled from two parties in his political career and that, too, while being an elected public representative.
Earlier when he was first suspended and finally expelled from the CPI(M) in September 2017, he was the party’s Rajya Sabha member then.
He was expelled from the CPI(M) on charges of grave anti-party activities and a series of disciplinary violations after the internal enquiry by the party leadership established major charges against him: Lavish lifestyle, financial discrepancies and moral misconduct.
Since he was expelled from the party, he could continue his full tenure as a Rajya Sabha member then.
Later, he became the Rajya Sabha member as Trinamool Congress representative for a brief period.
Ritabrata Banerjee served his second term in the Rajya Sabha representing the Trinamool Congress from December 13, 2024, to April 2, 2026, as he was nominated to the Upper House of the Parliament following the mid-term resignation of Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member and former bureaucrat, Jawhar Sircar, who stepped down in protest against the R.G. Kar rape and murder tragedy.
Now on Monday, since Trinamool Congress had expelled him from the party on charges of anti-party activities, he will not have any problem in continuing his full term of five years as an elected legislator from Uluberia (Purba).
The same thing will be applicable in case of Sandipan Saha, who was also expelled from Trinamool Congress on Monday on the same charges.
The announcement of the expulsion of Banerjee and Saha came minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, addressing a press conference from the state secretariat Nabanna, announced that it was Trinamool MLAs Ritabrata and Sandipan who had submitted a written complaint to the Speaker regarding the Assembly signature forgery case.
Although Banerjee is yet to make any statement to the media about his expulsion, Saha had defended his stand for informing the Speaker about the Assembly signature forgery case.
“What I did was prompted by my moral obligation as an elected legislator. Some of the Trinamool Congress legislators were present at a meeting of the party legislators convened on May 6. On that day, no resolution was adopted regarding nominating the names of the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Deputy Leader of Opposition and the Chief Whip.
“On May 19, a resolution was submitted to the Assembly Speaker’s office, which contained the signatures of some of the legislators who were not present at the May 6 meeting. This was illegal and unethical. So, I felt it was my moral obligation to tell this to the Speaker’s office,” Saha told media persons.
(IANS)
