Ghosh, before and after his shave. (Main Uddin Chisti)

Cooch Behar, May 23: A keyboard played to the beat of kettledrums and priests chanted shlokas as a barber today put his scissors to Santosh Chandra Ghosh’s hair after 25 years.

The Congressman had vowed in 1983 that he would have a proper haircut and a shave only when the CPM was voted out of power from the Marichbari-Kholta gram panchayat. “I had lost to the CPM by 31 votes,” said Santosh, now 65.

The Congress had won his seat in 2003 but he refused to shave, saying the gram panchayat was still the CPM’s. Five years ago, the CPM had won 20 seats and the Congress two.

This year, the CPM has got only seven seats in the village body, about 25km from Cooch Behar town.