Asish Banerjee, former deputy speaker of the West Bengal assembly and an aide to Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, was found dead Sunday morning at a party office adjacent to his home in Rampurhat city.
Police said his body, found hanging, has been sent for postmortem, NDTV reports.
Asish, a five‑time MLA from Rampurhat, had served as deputy speaker during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as chief minister and earlier held portfolios as Bengal’s education and agriculture minister.
Local reports said a handwritten note was recovered near the body.
“No one is responsible for my death,” the note stated.
In the purported note, he expressed regret over entering politics, urged his family not to get involved in political life, denied any link to corruption, and said that while he could not accept the party’s “wrongdoing,” he had never been able to protest against it.
He lost to BJP candidate Dhruba Saha in the state election earlier this year. He stepped down in June as chairman of the Trinamool’s Birbhum district core committee, though he announced he would remain a general member of the party.
Crowds gathered outside the Rampurhat office as news of his death spread.
The BJP won six of Birbhum’s 11 constituencies in the latest election, compared to the Trinamool’s 10‑to‑1 advantage in 2021.
The development comes amid sweeping changes in Bengal politics following the Trinamool’s defeat after 15 years in power, with several former party leaders facing corruption investigations and arrests.
