Dec. 18: Former CPM MLA Dhiren Let has returned to political activities, almost a month after he was made to squat holding his ears in front of people by alleged Trinamul activists in Birbhum and promise that he would severe ties with his party.

Photographs of Let, a four-time MLA from Birbhum's Mayureswar, bleeding from the head and nose after being beaten with sticks, squatting repeatedly holding his ears and murmuring that he would not keep any tack with the CPM went viral on November 21.

Let, however, has not backed out of the battle, setting an example for the election-battered CPM. On Wednesday, he led a procession at Gadadharpur, 8km from his home at Parulia in Mayureswar, demanding proper price for paddy. It was during another such march that he was assaulted.

"The incident (the attack) is my inspiration to fight back," the 70-year-old, who was a zilla parishad chief between 1998 and 2003, told The Telegraph.

Around 350 people attended Wednesday's march. Villagers said they did not expect such a "large" turnout. Residents said they were forced to sell their produce at Rs 950 a quintal to local traders although the minimum support price for paddy is Rs 1,410 a quintal.

"Our agitation will continue till the government looks into the matter seriously," Let said.

The turnout is a pointer to how Let tries to touch the lives of people, a lesson for the leadership at Alimuddin Street in Calcutta and AK Gopalan Bhavan in Delhi.

"In the past four years, hardly 50-60 people used to attend such marches.... It appears that those who were scared to be seen with us are gradually coming out after Dhirenda showed the courage to restart his political activities after the humiliation in public," a Birbhum CPM leader said.

Let returned to his Parulia home, 47km from Bolpur, on November 27 after spending six days in Suri Sadar Hospital, where he was admitted after the attack.

The leader, a CPM member since 1968, had to take rest for a few more days. But soon he started meeting people, speaking to well-wishers who visited his home and drawing up plans of building a movement over people's issues.

"My life has been full of struggle. I know I will have to be with the people and raise their issues," he said.

Let's humble home bears testimony to his simple lifestyle. There is no television set or refrigerator in his two-room tin-roof home with brick walls. The house of the leader, who used to enjoy the powers of a minister of state when the Left was in power, also has a plain wooden cot, a mosquito net, a small ceiling fan and a wooden rack attached to the wall. The rack is full of party publications.

Let does have a cellphone, but it's Samsung's basic model, bought for Rs 1,200 four years ago. "I need a phone to be in touch with comrades," he said.

Some villagers said Let's lifestyle was not only in sharp contrast to many Trinamul leaders in the district, who move around in big cars, but also several in his own party.

"He never used his clout to get electricity in his home. He got a power connection only in 2004," said a villager, who refused to divulge his name.

The irony cannot be missed as the third unit of the Bakreswar thermal power plant, around 40km from Parulia, was set up during Let's tenure as the zilla parishad sabhadhipati.

"I don't have electricity in my home.... So I don't want to get used to the comfort of a ceiling fan or an air-conditioner," he had told correspondent Pranesh Sarkar during an interview on a sultry June afternoon in 2002 in Let's chamber in the Birbhum zilla parishad office in Suri.

Politicians cannot be faulted for using basic amenities or moving around in big cars but simplicity and humble living are considered virtues in politics in India, especially in Bengal. One of the major reasons for Mamata Banerjee coming to power was the perception that she came from a humble background and led a spartan life in a tiled-roof house.

Several Trinamul leaders this newspaper spoke to conceded that Let's "simplicity" was posing a "threat" to them and that's why he was targeted during the November 21 march. "Dhirenda is a nice man and everyone in the area knows that. The plan was to terrorise him in such a manner that he leaves politics forever," a Trinamul leader in Sainthia said.

The ruling party is worried about the presence of Let because the CPM managed to hold on to the Mayureswar Assembly seat in 2011, staving off the winds of change. Most residents believe Let's hard work had made this possible.

Let said his only worry used to be marrying off his five daughters and he was "relieved" that he could do so "without much of a trouble".

Even today, the four-time MLA, who has no land, works as a sharecropper on a 10-bigha plot to eke out a living. He pays a percentage of what he earns from the produce to the owner of the land.

Let's other source of income is the whole-timer's remuneration of Rs 6,000 a month that he gets from the CPM after depositing the pension of Rs 8,000 that the government pays to former MLAs.

Let's wife Sandhya too has accepted the hardships smilingly. During Let's six-day stay in hospital, she used to get up at 5 in the morning, cook for him and travel 30km in a bus to give him the food.

"He could not eat the lunch provided by the hospital as he had pain in the jaw. I used to take gola bhat (semi-solid rice) for him," Sandhya had said earlier this month.

She had said her husband would resume full-fledged political activities. "That's a worry, but he has always been like this. How can I change him?"