As the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections are getting closer, the political atmosphere is heating up not just on the campaign trail, but also within the corridors of the central investigative agencies.
With polling set to take place in two phases on April 23 and April 29, the central agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have intensified probe into high-profile cases involving key Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates.
From the alleged municipal recruitment scam to land-grabbing accusations in the last one month, four TMC candidates have been summoned and questioned by central agencies.
Fire Minister & Bidhannagar candidate Sujit Bose
Fire Minister Sujit Bose, a TMC candidate from Bidhannagar, has been summoned by the ED on April 6 in connection with alleged corruption in appointments by several district civic bodies.
Bose has been winning from Bidhannagar for three consecutive terms. In the 2021 polls, he defeated BJP’s Sabyasachi Dutta by a margin of around 8,000 votes.
The ED is probing the alleged fund transfers in the multi crore irregularities in municipal appointments across the state. There are 123 municipalities and seven municipal corporations in Bengal. Several civic bodies in and around Calcutta, including South Dum Dum, Kamarhati, Panihati, North Dum Dum, and Baranagar municipalities, as well as a few in north Bengal, are under the scanner. The investigation by ED was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI following directions from the Calcutta High Court.
In 2023, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe allegations that various civic bodies recruited 1,500 people between 2014 and 2018 in exchange for money. CBI summoned him on August 31, 2023, over alleged irregularities in appointments at several municipalities, particularly during his tenure as the vice-chairman of South Dum Dum Municipality.
Following this, the ED began a probe into the money trail related to this case.
Bose has been summoned by ED several times in this case earlier. In October 2025, the ED conducted extensive raids at his Salt Lake office, his residence, and other locations associated with him. He was questioned for several hours then. In January 2024, the ED raided his residence and office for over 14 hours, seizing documents and his mobile phone.
Last year Bose’s wife, son, and daughter had been summoned.
Madhyamgram candidate Rathin Ghosh
TMC heavyweight candidate Rathin Ghosh has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 9 in connection with the ongoing investigation into the municipality recruitment scam.
Ghosh, a candidate from Madhyamgram Assembly seat, is the Food and Supplies Minister in the third Mamata Banerjee government. He was elected as a member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Madhyamgram in 2011, 2016, and 2021.
In October 2023, the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids in connection with its investigation into the alleged irregularities in the recruitments done by the civic bodies in the state. The ED team reached Ghosh’s residence in Michael Nagar in North 24 Parganas district and also simultaneously began searches at 12 other places in connection with the case.
The ED had alleged that around 1,500 people were illegally recruited by different civic bodies in the state between 2014 and 2018 against monetary considerations.
In April 2023, the Calcutta High Court had directed the CBI to investigate an alleged scam in municipal recruitments in Bengal, taking note of the ED’s findings during its probe into the school jobs for bribes scam.
The ED had told the High Court that common agents like Ayan Sil, arrested in connection with the school jobs scam were also involved in alleged illegalities in the recruitment of clerks, sweepers, peons, drivers, etc in various municipalities in Bengal.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the alleged scam on the orders of the Calcutta High Court and later Ghosh was asked to submit certain documents in connection with the case. This is the first time Ghosh has been summoned in connection with the case.
Incumbent MLA & Rashbehari candidate Debasish Kumar
Debasish Kumar, the TMC candidate from Rashbehari constituency in South Kolkata and a member of the Mayor in Council of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), is allegedly linked to a land-grabbing case involving a private construction group and KMC assistance and has been summoned for the third time in last 15 days for questioning.
He was questioned for hours on March 30 and on April 3 at the ED office.
It is alleged that a private construction group encroached land and grabbed it with the assistance of KMC, where Kumar serves as a member of the mayor-in-council.
According to sources a dozen of FIRs have been filed in connection with property acquisitions, following which searches were conducted.
The ED, according to sources, had recently raided the residence of businessman Amit Gangopadhyay, and other partners of the firm in question, recovering documents and phone chats linking Kumar to disputed lands. During the raids, the agency also seized pictures and information of several disputed lands that were sent to Kumar. His name surfaced during the probe.
Kumar’s name had surfaced during the investigation, and he has been summoned thrice in the last 15 days.
According to ED sources, the agency is investigating “Why Gangopadhyay and his partners were sending pictures and information regarding the disputed lands to Kumar”.
It is also probing if Kumar had any link with the sale of the disputed properties, if there was any exchange of money and in case there was, the ED will also probe the money trail.
Debasish Kumar won the 2021 Assembly elections from the Rashbehari constituency on an All India Trinamool Congress ticket by a 21,414 vote margin. It is one of TMC’s strongholds. Prior to Kumar, Sobhan Deb Chattopadhyay was the MLA from this seat from 2001-2011.
Bhagabanpur candidate Manab Kumar Parua
The first time candidate from Bhagabanpur seat Manab Kumar Parua appeared before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday in connection with a 2022 blast case.
Three people allegedly linked to the TMC had died in an explosion at a house at Naruabila village in East Midnapore’s Bhupatinagar area on December 3, 2022. The victims were identified as Raj Kumar Manna, house owner and the TMC’s local polling booth committee president and TMC workers, Biswajit Gayen and Buddhadeb Manna.
NIA took over the investigation from the state police in June 2023 following orders from the Calcutta High Court.
The NIA team, which had travelled to Bhupatinagar, was allegedly attacked by a group of people on April 6, 2024 while trying to arrest local TMC workers Manobrata Jana and Balai Charan Maity. One NIA officer also sustained injuries in the attack.
The NIA filed its chargesheet in July 2024, naming the three deceased and three others, Panchanan Ghorai, Manobrata Jana and Balai Charan Maity, who were arrested during the probe. Parua and another TMC leader Naba Kumar Panda were also named in a supplementary chargesheet filed in the same month.
The Indian Express reached out to Parua but he refused to comment on the matter.
Parua has been with the TMC for several years, starting college politics from Bhagabanpur. He became the booth President, panchayat member, and block president in 2018 zilla parishad member.
TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty, meanwhile, accused the BJP of trying to disturb the candidate’s overall campaign schedule. “This is nothing but an attempt to disturb the schedule of candidates who are busy campaigning for elections. It is their desperate attempt to malign the image of the candidate. We have seen what BJP did to Kejriwal (Arvind Kejriwal) later, the court acquitted him stating he was innocent,” Chakraborty said while speaking to The Indian Express.
“In TMC, we now call these summons ‘friend requests’ from the BJP as this is the social media era. You see those people like Tapas Roy, Suvendu Adhikari are those who accept these friend requests. Those who don’t accept they are harassed by these agencies. On 12 January, 2024, a raid was carried out in the residence of Sujit Bose and Tapas Roy both. Tapas Roy who accepted the friend request became their candidate and this time he is fighting from Beleghata and Sujit Bose who did not, is still getting summons. We just want to say that no amount of summons can threaten TMC, as it is the public who are by our side,” Chakraborty added.
Voting for the West Bengal Assembly elections will be held in two phases on April 23 and April 29, 2026 for 294 seats. Polling for 152 seats will be held in the first phase and 142 seats in the second phase. The voting in Bidhannagar and Rashbehari will take place on April 29.
