The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police on Friday questioned numerous Trinamool Congress (TMC)lawmakers over claims that some signatures on a May 19 letter choosing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Assembly’s leader of the opposition (LoP) were created, celebration leaders stated.
< source media ="(min-width:768px)" alt ="West Bengal CID questioned several TMC MLAs. (cid.wb.gov.in)" > < img src ="https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2026/05/29/400x225/West-Bengal-CID-questioned-several-TMC-MLAs---cid-_1780067629162.jpg"alt ="West Bengal CID questioned several TMC MLAs. (cid.wb.gov.in)"title ="West Bengal CID questioned several TMC MLAs. (cid.wb.gov.in)"width ="360"height ="202"loading ="eager">The grievance was lodged at Kolkata’s Hare Street police headquarters on behalf of the Assembly secretariat on Wednesday, and the matter was turned over to the CID, authorities stated.
” The TMC sent its very first letter to the Assembly relating to the LoP problem on May 6, however the Assembly declined it since it was not sent out by the TMC legal celebration, which is obligatory. When a 2nd letter signed by TMC MLAs was sent on May 19, it was discovered that a few of the signatures did not match the Assembly records, “a law enforcement officer stated, asking for privacy.
All 80 TMC MLAs were asked to put together at celebration chairperson Mamata Banerjee’s house on May 19. The celebration did not inform the number of individuals existed.
Of the numerous TMC MLAs the CID questioned till Friday afternoon, just one– Baharul Islam from South 24 Parganas district’s Canning East seat– stated he did not sign the letter. “I might not go to the conference as I was at home. If I didn’t sign the letter, then who did? I have actually notified the management about this,” Islam stated on Friday.
Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the surveys, protecting 207 of Bengal’s 294 seats and leaving the TMC with only 80, the celebration revealed on May 10 that 82-year-old Chattopadhyay, a 10-time MLA who won Kolkata’s Ballygunge seat in the April surveys, would be the LoP.
Kolkata’s Chowringhee MLA Nayna Bandopadhyay, other half of TMC Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Hooghly district’s Dhaniakhali MLA Asima Patra were chosen as deputy leaders of the opposition in your house. Kolkata mayor and Kolkata Port MLA Firhad Hakim was chosen as the TMC primary whip.
A CID group went to Nayna and Sudip Bandopadhyay’s home on Thursday.
“They wished to see my Aadhaar, PAN and other files. I informed them I existed at the conference of the TMC legal celebration and signed the file nominating Chattopadhyay,” Nayna Bandopadhyay stated.
The exact same claim was made by Birbhum district’s Bolpur MLA Chandranath Sinha after a CID see to his home on Friday. “It is my signature on the file. I participated in the conference of the MLAs in Kolkata,” Sinha stated.
Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, who presumed workplace on May 15, did not talk about the problem.
BJP MLA Tapas Roy, who administered the oath to both TMC and his celebration’s MLAs as the pro-tem speaker before Bose took charge, stated, “The West Bengal Legislative Assembly has actually never ever seen forgeries like this. If an MLA creates the signature of another, then the speaker can act. Otherwise, the authorities will act according to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.”
Chattopadhyay stated, “If Baharul states he did not sign the letter, then who did? I was never ever part of any malpractice. It makes no distinction to me if I do not continue as leader of the opposition.”
We have 80 MLAs. Just 30 signatures are needed for this election. I question why the BJP is so proactive on this,” he included.
Assembly authorities stated lawmakers condemned of creating signatures can be disqualified as Assembly members.
