Asish Banerjee, an Indian politician and former deputy speaker of the West Bengal Assembly, died Aug. 16, 2026, at 74, India Today reported. He was found inside a Trinamool Congress office next to his Rampurhat residence in Birbhum.
On Aug. 15, Banerjee took part in a local Independence Day celebration and hoisted India’s national flag. The following morning, he was found hanging in the office. Police sent his body for a postmortem examination and investigated whether he had died by suicide. The exact circumstances remained unclear.
India Today reported that a purported note recovered Aug. 16 referred to alleged wrongdoing involving the Tarapith Rampurhat Development Authority. The allegations were not established.
Banerjee first won the Rampurhat Assembly seat for the Trinamool Congress in 2001 and represented the constituency for 25 consecutive years. He became West Bengal’s agriculture minister in 2017 and was elected deputy speaker of the Assembly in July 2021.
