Ramji from Ayodhya hopes to get a job in Bengal.

On Sunday, Ramji Mishra, a 25-year-old from BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda in the Ayodhya belt, reached Malda to appear for Bengal's School Service Commission teacher recruitment drive.

Although the tainted SSC exams over the past few years resulted in over 26,000 jobs being cancelled on Supreme Court orders, many aspirants from across the country — including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand — reached Bengal on Sunday to appear for the SSC exam.

That aspirants from BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh came to Bengal to seek government teaching jobs here quickly sparked a debate between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

As hundreds of anxious candidates queued up outside test the Malda Women’s College, Ramji, a graduate in social sciences, said: "I travelled overnight in a bus to reach here to sit for the SSC examination."

Ramji is seeking the job of a Hindi teacher.

That a youth named Ram, from the very land that is the political and religious epicentre of the BJP's Hindutva project, should come searching for a government job in Trinamool-ruled Bengal, was not lost on political observers.

“I have heard about the SSC scam in Bengal and how the Supreme Court annulled the entire panel. Still, I have decided to sit for the exam,” Ramji said before entering the examination hall in Malda. “Hopefully, the nightmare won’t be repeated this time.”

Like Ramji, Arun Pandit, a mathematics postgraduate from Godda in Jharkhand, also came to Malda to appear for the exams for Classes IX and X teaching positions.

"Of course I know about the infamous SSC episode here and the judicial consequences that followed. However, my objective is to get a teaching job in any government-run school, no matter where it is in India. That's why I have come to Malda to write papers for SSC examinations," Arun said before entering Barlow Girls' High School, his examination centre.

Ramji and Arun said at least 15 candidates from their respective home states had travelled to Malda to appear in Sunday's test.

Trinamool leaders in Malda wasted no time seizing the moment.

“The rush of aspiring teachers to Bengal from BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh is significant. Educated unemployed youths there are now turning to Bengal because their governments have failed to offer them jobs with dignity,” said Abdur Rahim Boxi, the Trinamool Malda district president and Malatipur MLA.

The BJP dismissed this as exaggeration. “Not more than 100 outsiders came, and that too for Hindi-medium vacancies. Compare that with lakhs of workers migrating from Malda alone to BJP-ruled states for better earnings,” said Ajay Ganguly, BJP’s Malda South president.

According to sources, nearly five lakh persons from Malda district migrate every year to work as construction labourers, tower installation hands or mobile vendors in other states.