The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has fielded Ritabrata Banerjee from Uluberia East constituency for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Banerjee, a prominent student leader was expelled from CPM in 2017. He joined the Trinamool in 2018 and has been an active member ever since.
The upcoming West Bengal elections will be held in two phases: April 23 and April 29. The votes will be counted on May 4.
Who Is Ritabrata Banerjee?
Born on November 15, 1979, Ritabrata Banerjee is a West Bengal politician and senior leader of the Trinamool. He studied at South Point High School, Kolkata, earned a BA from Asutosh College. Banerjee later obtained his master's degree from Calcutta University.
He began his political career in 1996 as a student leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and rose to become General Secretary of its student wing, the Students' Federation of India (SFI), from 2008 to 2016. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 as a CPI(M) candidate. He was also once close to former Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
In 2017, Banerjee was expelled for three months from CPM for “gross anti-party activity” and breaking discipline. He was criticised within the party for his allegedly lavish lifestyle, including wearing an Apple Watch, carrying a Mont Blanc pen, and frequent travels, considered unusual for a Communist Party worker. A three-member internal commission investigated and formally expelled him in October 2017.
At the same time, in 2017, a woman accused him of sexual exploitation on the pretext of marriage, claiming their relationship began via Twitter in 2016 and continued physically in his Delhi residence before she moved abroad. She alleged she had intimate photographs and video clips as proof.
Banerjee denied the claims, calling them “manufactured lies” and filed a counter-complaint alleging extortion. The West Bengal Police and the CID served him notices and took him in for questioning regarding the case.
After leaving CPIM, he completed his Rajya Sabha term as an independent member before joining the TMC, where he has been active since. In 2021, he became state president of TMC's trade union wing, the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC).
In 2024, the Trinamool nominated Banerjee for a Rajya Sabha by-election in West Bengal, following the resignation of Jawhar Sircar. He was declared winner uncontested.
