India, May 31 -- The Trinamool Congress, already reeling from the most catastrophic electoral defeat in its history, found itself confronted on Saturday with a fresh legal and organisational crisis. The state's Criminal Investigation Department issued a summons to Abhishek Banerjee, asking him to appear before investigators on Monday, June 1, in connection with an alleged forgery of legislators' signatures-a development that threatens to further destabilise a party that is visibly fracturing at every level.

The CID summon relates to an ongoing investigation into allegations that signatures of several TMC MLAs were forged on a letter connected to the nomination of a Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, which was s...