You could say the signature dispute has been allowed to fester into a full-on disciplinary matter. In an order that came out late Monday, the TMC has made it official: Saha and Banerjee are out for half a decade. It’s a move that puts a point to a volatile disagreement and a very sensitive probe that is now in motion.
Signature row triggers highest-level crackdown
There was a lot of movement on June 1, 2026, before the expulsion was put in writing. Just minutes before, at a presser, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari made it known that the two had put in complaints having to do with a ‘fake signature’ affair in the Assembly.
The trouble stems from a note to the Assembly Secretariat putting forward Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition. The CID is looking into whether party members’ signatures were doctored to make it happen – a sore point within the ranks.
Why the two leaders were targeted
Those in the know have seen the friction for some time. Saha didn’t mince words when he put the top brass on the spot about their approach and where the organisation was going. He even said the party was ‘heading into uncertain darkness.’ His way of saying some were leaving the cadre behind made for an uncomfortable moment for the leadership and spread fast online.
Then there is Banerjee, head of the trade union arm. There were other issues here. Some senior people in the party pointed to him setting up his own fiefdom in certain labour strongholds and stoking division in a few industrial areas.
Inside the disciplinary order
In a letter to the pair, the party laid out the case: they haven’t been showing up to meetings when called on by the right people and have been up to no good. They were also told they’d been making comments that don’t do the AITC any favours. Chandrima Bhattacharya, the vice president, put her name to it.
After they’ve had their say, the authority in charge has decided to part ways with them, effective at once. You could read it as a show of force after a meeting of the disciplinary committee with some of the big wigs in the room.
Who they are and what their exit means
Saha is the new face from Entally in Kolkata and comes from a political family – his father is the old hand Swarna Kamal Saha. He made quick work of some local resistance and had the younger workers in the city counting on him for a bit more clout.
Banerjee is the State President of the All India Trinamool Trade Union Congress and an ex-Rajya Sabha MP. Where you have his kind of standing with the unions, you have a sway over the mood on the ground, which can be a political asset in a hurry.
So you will see some of this in the local units where they have made inroads. The top table wants to re-establish some order. As for the rest of the membership, the word is: if you form your own power base or cause a scene, we will act on it.
Here is what the party and those looking on have their eyes on:
– How the CID is handling its side of things
– Any shift in the way the unions line up
– Ripples in the Kolkata chapter
– What the district organisers have to say
What the stakes are inside AITC
This is as much about how you run a ship as it is about saving face. With Saha’s public jabs and the questions around Banerjee’s influence in the union, the central command was being put to the test.
The way the leadership has put it in the order is to make it clear they are defending the rules of the house. Citing missed meetings and ‘prejudicial’ talk is a way of laying down the law for anyone else who might think of straying.
What to watch next
For the moment, it’s the CID’s turn to sort out the story on the so-called forgeries in the endorsement of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. That will be the tale beyond the party’s own reckoning.
We’ll have to see in the weeks ahead if getting rid of these two puts out the fire or just moves it along. For now, the AITC has made its position plain: a six-year sentence and no room for any kind of insubordination.
