POLITICS makes strange bedfellows. It can also wreck a marriage. Sujata Mondol Khan, the wife of BJP MP from West Bengal’s Bishnupur Saumitra Khan, Monday found her marriage on the rocks when her husband of 10 years threatened to divorce her after she joined the ruling TMC. Claiming that “misfit and corrupt leaders” were getting more importance in the BJP than those loyal to the party, Mondal Khan shifted allegiance to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, a move that may destruct the marriage the couple thought was made in heaven.

 

“Despite enduring physical attacks, sacrificing so much to get my husband elected to Parliament, I got nothing in return... I want to work under our beloved leader Mamata Banerjee and our dada Abhishek Banerjee,” she said, after joining the party in the presence of TMC MP Saugata Roy and its spokesperson Kunal Ghosh. Asked if her decision would, in any way, influence her husband, who is also the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state unit chief, she said it was up to him to decide his future course of action. A furious Khan hurriedly called a press conference where he announced his decision to “sever our 10-year relationship”. “You are being used by some people who did not hesitate to create a rift between a husband and wife who stood by each other during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Yes, you were my pillar of strength during the Bishnupur Lok Sabha campaign.

 

“However, please don’t forget I had won by 6,58,000 votes and this margin was made possible because of my party, because of my reputation in the area,” Khan said. Khan had won the seat by a margin of over 75,000 votes while having polled 6.5 lakh votes. “You (Sujata) have come this far as you had chanted Jai Shree Ram, chanted in favour of (Narendra) Modiji, as you were the wife of Saumitra Khan,” a livid BJP lawmaker said. “Please refrain from using the ‘Khan’ surname hereafter, please don’t refer to yourself as Saumitra Khan’s wife.

 

I am giving you all the freedom to chart your own political destiny. But please don’t forget you are siding with those who had attacked your parents’ residence in 2019 after I joined the BJP,” Khan said. His wife, however, still has hope that Khan will be back in the TMC one day. “I hope he will realise one day... Who knows he might be back in the TMC one day,” she said.