KOLKATA: Asish Banerjee, the former deputy speaker of the West Bengal Assembly and five-time MLA from Rampurhat, was found hanging at a Trinamool Congress (TMC) office in Birbhum district on Sunday morning.Police said Banerjee’s body was found at the party office and was sent for post-mortem examination. A purported suicide note was also recovered from the office, according to PTI. The circumstances surrounding his death are yet to be established.
Who was Asish Banerjee ?
Asish Banerjee was a TMC leader from Birbhum’s Rampurhat constituency and had represented the seat as an MLA for five terms. He won the Rampurhat seat in the 2011, 2016 and 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections as an AITC candidate and contested the constituency again in the 2026 Assembly election.Banerjee served as deputy speaker of the West Bengal Assembly while TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was chief minister. He had also served as the state’s agriculture minister.He also served as chairman of the Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority.
Education and profession
According to election affidavit data available on MyNeta, Banerjee was a retired associate professor. He held a PhD in Arts from Burdwan University, which he completed in 1985, and an MA in Bengali from the university in 1972.His 2026 election affidavit listed his age as 69. He had declared assets of Rs 1.8 crore, with no liabilities, and reported no criminal cases.
Political career
Banerjee contested the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election from Rampurhat, seeking a sixth consecutive term, but lost to BJP‘s Dhruba Saha by 24,233 votes. Saha polled 1,11,920 votes, while Banerjee secured 87,687 votes.After his defeat in the 2026 assembly polls, Banerjee resigned as chairman of TMC’s Birbhum district core committee on June 2. He informed TMC state president Subrata Bakshi about his decision and said he would continue as a general member of the party.According to PTI, Banerjee’s decision was in consonance with former Lavpur MLA Abhijit Sinha, who had also resigned from the Birbhum district core committee, accusing it of not functioning in accordance with its political tasks during the assembly election. Both Banerjee and Sinha had lost the 2026 assembly election.The BJP won six of Birbhum’s 11 assembly constituencies in the 2026 polls, while the TMC won five. In 2021, the TMC had won 10 seats in the district and the BJP one.As the investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death continues, police are looking into the events leading up to Banerjee being found at the TMC office.
