Unaware husband is dead, West Bengal woman votes

GOPIBALLAVPUR (WEST MIDNAPORE): When Basanti Singh stepped out of her Gopiballavpur home to vote on Sunday morning, she wasn’t aware her husband Ramen — a BJP booth president — had died at a local rural hospital. She only knew he was critical. Only later did she learn that his body was in the morgue waiting to be identified and taken away.


According to Basanti and her brother-in-law Hiren, Ramen had stepped out of home late at night to put up a tent near the polling booth for party workers. It was then that he was reportedly attacked with sharp weapons. Ramen was taken to the hospital, where he died immediately. “He only told me he was going out for party work and would return in a few hours,” Basanti said.

On Sunday morning,

unaware

she was now a

widow

, Basanti stepped out of home with mother-in-law Nirmala (60) to vote at Pedbirdi polling booth in Juishole. It was only when they returned that Hiren broke the news of Ramen’s death.

Hiren said: “My brother was a committed worker and BJP leaders heeded what he said. He would have wanted all votes to be cast for BJP.” Hiren, a farmer, said his family were staunch BJP supporters.

BJP’s Jhargram president Sukhomoy Satpati said: “Trinamool knows the ground is fast slipping away. Ramen was a good booth-level organiser. So, he was murdered in cold blood.”

However, TMC Jhargram convener Sukumar Hansda said: “The death was due to BJP infighting. TMC had even failed to assign a

polling agent

there. We could do so only later in the day.”

Police said the initial post-mortem report indicated the injuries had triggered a cerebral attack.