Two years after her husband died, grief gripped Hasirani Rath, 70, whose son Chandranath Rath, 42, the personal assistant to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, was brutally gunned down at Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas on
Wednesday night.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost to Suvendu Adhikari in the Assembly elections (in Bhabanipur). My son campaigned for Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur and Nandigram. That is why my son was killed... in anger... for political revenge,” an inconsolable Hasirani said at her modest home in East Midnapore’s Chandipur, where Chandranath’s body arrived on Thursday evening.

A massive crowd had been waiting for the body of the BJP worker. The crowds swelled as Chandranath’s last rites were conducted.

Sitting at home, Hasirani broke down frequently, surrounded by family members who tried to console her at their modest home
in Chandipur.

The vehicle with the body of Chandranath Rath leaves after the autopsy at the Barasat state hospital on Thursday afternoon amid a surging crowd. Picture by Sudip Deb

Relatives said Chandranath was the elder of Hasirani’s two sons. Her younger son, Soumen, is a temporary worker in the irrigation department. Soumen was married. Chandranath was not yet married.

Crying incessantly and gasping, Hasirani said: “If my son had died in an accident, I would not have suffered this much. I cannot accept the way my son was shot and brutally murdered.”

Hasirani was once a Trinamool member, but late in 2020, she resigned from the post of the party’s panchayat samiti karmadhyaksh and joined the BJP with Adhikari.

Chandranath’s cousin Aparna Guchait said he had worked in the Indian Air Force till 2016.

“After leaving his job, Chandranath came in touch with Suvendu Adhikari. He had been working as the BJP leader’s PA since 2021,” Aparna said.

Aparna said that Chandranath had rented a flat at Madhyamgram two years ago and used to stay there. He last came home to Chandipur on April 23 to cast his vote in the Assembly polls.

“On Wednesday, he returned to Calcutta after finishing some pending work in Chandipur. His last lunch, before leaving for Calcutta, was the food his mother had prepared for him. He had promised his mother to visit home again once the new government was formed, saying his workload would reduce then, and he would be able to spend a few days at home. No one could imagine that Chandranath would return home for his last rites,” a crying Aparna said.

Chandranath studied in the village school till Madhyamik and did his higher secondary from a school at Jalchak in West Midnapore. He got a job in the army while studying mathematics honours at a college in Rahara, North 24-Parganas.

Neighbour Prabir Manna said that Chandranath was telling all of them on April 23, when he came to vote, that the Election Commission and the central forces were very active this time, and there would be no violence anywhere.

“But after the results of the election were announced, Chandranath himself fell prey to bullets,” Manna said.