TMC vice-president and spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumder confirmed to The Indian Express that the two were suspended.

Santanu Sen is known to be close to the party’s all-India general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee.

Sen told reporters, “They should say what anti-party activities I was engaged in or what discipline I breached. I challenge them to prove it… What did I do wrong?”

The former Rajya Sabha member had also been the head of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti in Kolkata’s R G Kar Medical College Hospital, but was removed the post.

After last year’s rape-murder in R G Kar that rocked West Bengal, Sen has been vocal against a section of party leaders as well as police and administration.

A doctor by profession, Sen had been made a member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal by the TMC in 2018. He has also served as a councillor in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

The action against him comes in the wake of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee coming down heavily against several ministers, thought to be close to her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, in a recent administrative meeting.

The other leader suspended from the party, Arabul Islam, had been suspended once before for six years. That was later revoked, and in the last panchayat election, he became a member of Bhangar Panchayat Samiti.

However, Islam was recently seen to be in bitter rivalry with TMC’s Canning Purba MLA, Saukat Molla.