Kolkata, Aug 16 : Former Deputy Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly and ex-Trinamool Congress MLA Asish Banerjee was found dead in a room at his Rampurhat residence that served as his party\u2019s office on Sunday.<\/p>\n
His body was found hanging in the office, said police, adding that a suicide note was recovered from the spot.<\/p>\n
Banerjee was a former Trinamool Congress legislator from Rampurhat Assembly constituency in Birbhum district.<\/p>\n
In the one-page handwritten suicide note in Bengali, he wrote that he made a mistake by entering the area of politics and that never in his political career had he got involved in any corrupt activity.<\/p>\n
The development has created ripples in the political circles, with questions being raised on why he took such an extreme step.<\/p>\n
Questions are being raised on whether he committed suicide due to political pressure or whether there was some other reason behind it.<\/p>\n
The police have started investigating the incident, and the body has been sent for post-mortem. The police are trying to verify whether the suicide note was actually written by him.<\/p>\n
A five-time Trinamool Congress legislator from Rampurhat Assembly constituency, Ashish Banerjee, was also a member of the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress cabinet in West Bengal, besides being a former deputy speaker of the Assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been involved in politics since my student days. I have never been involved in any corruption. I became the general secretary of the students\u2019 union at Burdwan University. I was not involved in any corruption there either. There have been political arguments. But in the past, those arguments had never taken the shape of hostility. Although I have not always been able to accept all the injustices of the party, I have not been able to protest. I have never taken a single penny in exchange for any work in my entire life,\u201d the suicide note read.<\/p>\n
The deceased leader had also claimed that his own party deprived him of all authority within Tarapith-Rampurhat Development Authority (TRDA) and alleged that many things were done to belittle him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no other responsibility in TRDA except attending the general body meeting. I was not in the tender committee. I did not have the cheque signing authority. I was not even involved in the passing of plans or the issue of a no-objection certificate for any project. No one ever discussed these matters with me. I condemn everything that was done to malign me. Today, it seems that entering politics was a mistake. I advise my sons not to enter politics. They should stay in their respective jobs,\u201d read the suicide note.<\/p>\n
In the Assembly elections earlier this year, Asish Banerjee, a teacher by profession, was defeated from Rampurhat by a margin of around 24,000 votes. Since then, he had become almost incommunicado with his party leadership.<\/p>\n