TMC expels two MLAs minutes after CM Suvendu Adhikari’s claim about ‘forged’ signatures

The Trinamool Congress on Monday expelled party MLAs Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha on charges of “anti-party activities”, The Indian Express reported.

The two legislators were removed minutes after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed at a press conference that they had complained about the signatures of Trinamool Congress MLAs being forged on a party letter endorsing Sovondeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of opposition in the Assembly.

Adhikari said that Bandopadhyay and Saha claimed that no such resolution was passed, and the document was fabricated, India Today reported.

“Notably, 14 of the signatures are written in block letters,” the chief minister was quoted by the channel as saying. “Three MLAs have already explicitly stated that they never signed any resolution. Following these discrepancies, the secretary of the speaker lodged an FIR at the Hare Street police station, and the case has now been handed over to the CID [Criminal Investigation Department].”

After the Trinamool Congress expelled him, Saha claimed that the party “supports those who do unethical things” and expels those who act ethically, The Indian Express reported. “We did not even know that a signature in an attendance register would be passed off as a signature on a proposal,” he claimed.

The Trinamool Congress, however, accused the two MLAs of harming the party’s interests in several...

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