Bishnupur: In 2019, after sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Saumitra Khan was barred from entering Bishnupur in Bankura district, it was his then wife and now Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sujata Mondal who campaigned for him. Five years later, personal and political equations have changed, and the now former spouses are battling hard against each other in one of the most high-profile contests in West Bengal in these elections.
Following a high court order in connection with the six criminal cases he then faced, Khan, now a two-time MP from Bishnupur, was restricted from entering Bankura during the election campaign. He had characterised this as an attempt by his former party, the TMC, to “harass” him.
It was left to Mondal, who was then in the BJP herself, to lead the campaign. Holding Khan’s photo, she would appeal to voters on his behalf. Her efforts worked — Khan was elected from Bishnupur for the second time by a margin of 78,047 votes.
Bishnupur goes to the polls on 25 May, and this time around, the former couple, who divorced in 2020 after Mondal decided to switch allegiances to the TMC, are no longer in the same corner.
At an internal booth meeting in Bishnupur, Mondal says it’s her destiny to “pay for her sins (paapon ka praischit)” by serving people.
“I’m a victim of harassment, torture, and domestic abuse,” she tells the TMC’s booth workers. “I left my husband’s house in the middle of the night after being tormented. I have fought against odds and circumstances, which has made me a strong woman.”
On his part, Khan doesn’t see his ex-wife as threat enough to keep him from winning the seat a third time. He also alleges that she is now contesting the election on behalf of “a party that nearly killed her in 2019”.
“Because she anticipated she wouldn’t get a BJP ticket for the 2021 polls, she joined the TMC. She forgets how they almost killed her. She’s an opportunist and the TMC knows they don’t have any face here, that’s why they purposely pitched Sujata here to use my name and campaign,” he tells ThePrint.
Mondal, too, says she was “nearly killed by the TMC” while campaigning for Khan. “They wanted to stop me from campaigning for him,” she says.
However, the TMC leader qualifies this by describing how the party “stood by” her through her divorce. “(TMC general secretary) Abhishek Banerjee is like my brother. He told me he was there for me and that I shouldn’t worry. The TMC became my strength at a time when the BJP was disrespecting a woman,” Mondal says.
ThePrint tried to reach TMC leader Kunal Ghosh via calls and texts about Khan’s and Mondal’s claims. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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‘Bitter’ end to a love story
When they met in 2010, Mondal was a primary school teacher, and Khan, a college dropout, was a Congress member. Their relationship developed as they met at political rallies and events.
In the 2011 assembly polls, when the Congress was in alliance with the TMC, Khan was elected as the MLA for Kotulpur. However, the alliance split a year later and Khan was among the many Congress leaders who joined the TMC.
In 2014, Khan made his Lok Sabha debut, winning the election from Bishnupur. He married Mondal two years later.
Mondal talks about the stiff opposition that her relationship with Khan faced.
“I come from a middle-class, educated family, my parents were working, and they were against me marrying Saumitra, a college dropout. We faced stiff opposition, but I married him and settled down,” she says.
Meanwhile, Mondal followed Khan as he switched political affiliations — like him, she too went from the Congress to the TMC, and then to the BJP.
TMC workers who have seen the couple together say the two were like-minded, and Mondal was seen as Khan’s biggest supporter.
That changed in 2020 when she decided to move back to the TMC.
An upset Khan announced that he would divorce his wife. Fighting back tears, he accused chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee of “stealing” his wife.
“She left me and decided to join hands with the tormentors. I loved her genuinely and with all my heart. I never thought of any other woman in the past 10 years,” he had said then, adding that he would “free” his wife.
Mondal fought the 2021 assembly elections from Arambagh but lost to the BJP’s Madhusudan Bag. She also campaigned for the TMC in last year’s Tripura polls but the party came a cropper.
In 2023, Mondal won a panchayat election in Joypur, Bankura.
As she now goes door-to-door seeking votes, the TMC leader talks about her “bitter” separation from Khan and reminds voters of the “strength” she got from Banerjee to “get back to her feet”.
Meanwhile, Khan says he doesn’t want to give any “space or attention” to his now ex-wife and political rival.
“She (Sujata) only knows drama. Even now, she’s using my name to campaign because she knows the public supports me here,” he says, confident that he will win Bishnupur for the third time.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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