Ritabrata Banerjee

Ritabrata Banerjee (born 15 November 1979) is an Indian politician from West Bengal. He is currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly since June 2026. He is serving as a Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Uluberia Purba AC. He previously had served as Rajya Sabha MP for two terms on Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All India Trinamool Congress tickets.

Early life Banerjee attended South Point High School, Kolkata, and obtained BA degree from Asutosh College and MA degree in English at Calcutta University. He is a full-time political activist and a former General Secretary of the Student Union in his college.

Political Career Banerjee's political journey began during his student days in Kolkata, when he was studying at Asutosh College. He actively became involved with Students' Federation of India, which is an affiliate of Communist Party of India (Marxist). He became extremely popular in unions as he was an efficient orator, and could grab people's attention easily.

He was suspended from CPI(M) party membership on 2 June 2017 for 3 months pending investigations to the allegations of moral turpitude and leaking party secrets to the press. On 10 October 2017 a lady named Namrata Dutta filed a complaint against Banerjee in Balurghat Police Station for sexual exploitation by promising marriage. Ritabrata denied the accusation claiming the woman was extorting money from him asked him for 50 Lakhs not to file an FIR and uploaded screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation in which she asked him for money. Subsequently, CID, West Bengal served a notice to him. Ritabrata was expelled by the CPI(M) after an interview to ABP Ananda television channel in which he spoke against Mohammed Salim. Ritabrata claimed that he was not against the party and only against Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Mohammed Salim.

On the month of June, after the 2026 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election result when he reported that TMC has duplicated his signature and made Sovandeb Chattopadhyay Leader of opposition as a consequence he got expelled from the party. After that He took the support of 2/3 majority and become leader of opposition and started rebel bloc of Trinomul Congress. His rebellion against the party he won sparked controversy. He also become vocal against Abhishek Banerjee's role of leading Trinamool Congress.