Former Bengal Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee Found Dead At TMC Office In Birbhum

Kolkata: Asish Banerjee, former deputy speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly was found dead in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) office in Birbhum district on Sunday morning. His body was found in the TMC office near his house in the Rampurhat city.

What happen to Asish Banerjee?

Former West Bengal Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Asish Banerjee was found dead this morning at the TMC office near his residence in Rampurhat town in Birbhum district. The police stated that his body was found hanging and an autopsy has been performed.

Asish Banerjee served as the deputy speaker when TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of West Bengal. He was a five-time MLA from Rampurhat.

What did the police say?

The police haven’t disclosed any details about the case, however, they confirmed that a suicide note was found. The body of the deceased has been sent for a post-mortem examination. A thorough report will be released after the post-mortem and the investigation of the case.

Birbhum, West Bengal: Former TMC MLA Ashish Banerjee's dead body was found in his office at his residence in Rampurhat. His body has been sent for postmortem. Further details are awaited pic.twitter.com/XoQPTgxR3l

— IANS (@ians_india) August 16, 2026

Who was Asish Banerjee?

Asish Banerjee, a 74-year-old TMC leader, has been the 13th deputy speaker of the West Bengal assembly since July 2021.

Banerjee was born in Rampurhat and completed his PhD from Burdwan University. He served as an associate professor at Rampurhat College for several years.

The late TMC leader was close personal friend to the party’s chief, Mamata Banerjee. He was also the state’s school education and agriculture minister in the previous Mamata government.

Asish Banerjee was a five-time MLA from Rampurhat who contested the polls in 2001,2006,2011,2016, and 2021. However, he lost the election this year after losing more than 24,000 votes to his BJP counterpart, Dhruba Saha. According to the ECdata, Banerjee received 87,687 votes while Saha received 1,11,920 votes.

In June this year, Asish Banerjee resigned as the chairman of the Birbhum district TMC committee, after Mamata’s defeat in the assembly elections where the saffron party won six of the 11 constituencies in the district. He stated that he wanted to continue to work as a member of the party. The former MLA blamed the district’s TMC organisation, led by Anubrata Mondal for the failure to conduct efficient election campaign in the polls. No official comment has been made by either Mamata or the TMC until now.

What did Mamata Banerjee say?

Neither Mamata Banerjee nor the TMC have made a public statement regarding Asish Banerjee’s death until now.

The probe into the circumstances surrounding his death is still going on.