TMC Sujata Vs BJP Saumitra: Once vowed in marriage, now vowed to fight each other on the battlefield Lok Sabha 2024

The Bishnupur Lok Sabha battle in Bengal is one of a kind in the country where the face-off isn’t between two parties alone but also between an estranged couple. TMC has fielded Sujata Mondal, former wife of BJP’s outgoing MP Saumitra Khan. They were married strongly but fell apart before 2021 Bengal assembly elections. The battle in Bishnupur is political and also very personal. “I regret I was once married to him”, said Sujata Mondal from an election campaign stage without any hesitation.

In 2019, during Lok Sabha Election, Saumitra Khan was barred from entering into Bishnupur by Calcutta High Court. Sujata, who was steadily into the marriage, had then picked up the mantle for her husband. The whole of election, Sujata had campaigned for Saumitra, carried his picture in her hand while seeking votes. Saumitra Kha had won the seat with a margin of over 78,000 votes. But a lot changed in 2021 as Sujata joined the TMC and fought the assembly election on a TMC ticket. While she had lost the election, the marriage was also over soon.

“I don’t know how Sujata chose to marry a man like him. His stories of dalliances are known to all. A man with such a character, is difficult to tolerate. I don’t want to get into their personal life but Sujata knows the best what kind of man Saumitra Khan is”, said Mamata Banerjee during an election campaign in Bankura with Sujata alongside her on the stage.

Saumitra Khan is on the other hand unfazed with their personal life now being tossed in public. Following the party line, his strategy had been to focus on the “corruption” issue. “I don’t care who says what about me. Women are concerned about their husbands and brothers. People don’t have a job here in Bengal. So women are more concerned about what happens to their husband or brother, rather than what kind of a husband I was”, Khan said in his election speech. Saumitra was with the TMC but switched sides ahead of Lok Sabha elections and is contesting on a BJP ticket yet again.

“I regret I had campaigned for a man like him. I had risked my own life. But this time I will win this ‘agnipariksha’. Women will understand what I as a woman had gone through. I was betrayed. But Mamata Banerjee never betrays a woman, thus ‘Lakhhir Bhandar’, her poll promise is reaching everyone”, said Sujata Mondal.

While Sumitra Khan says he doesn’t care much about “personal attacks”, the election battler in Bishnupur has become personal.