Behrampore, May 19: A young homemaker from a family of traditional CPM supporters killed herself this morning after being taunted by her Congress-loyalist in-laws for wasting her vote on the Left.

In Murshidabad’s Kashimbazar, Moumita Roy had a fight with her husband last night on her voting preference. She hanged herself hours later.

Younger brother Rahul Sarkar lodged a police complaint today, accusing her husband Prasanta and in-laws of driving her to death.

Prasanta and his kin have gone into hiding. But he admitted in a telephone conversation that he had indeed ridiculed his wife for being a Leftist. “I never imagined she could take such an extreme step,” he said.

They had been married for only three months and Moumita, 25, had told him she could not be expected to become a Congress supporter overnight.

Rahul, a farmer, said: “We are all staunch CPM supporters, but when the election campaign started, Prasanta and his family began to pressure didi to support the Congress. She told me over the phone that she had requested her husband to give her some time before she could also become a Congress supporter.”

When Murshidabad voted on May 7, Moumita returned home and candidly told Prasanta that she voted for the Left candidate. The RSP’s Pramathesh Mukherjee was up against the Congress’s Adhir Chowdhury in Behrampore.

“After Mukherjee was trounced, Prasanta’s family members and neighbours ridiculed didi. She and Prasantada fought over it last night,” said Rahul, who stays 5km from his sister’s place at Bhatpara.

When Prasanta returned from his morning walk around 6am, he found their room locked from inside.

After repeated knocks on the door, he broke it open and found Moumita hanging from the bamboo frame supporting their tiled roof.

“I had only asked my wife what she gained from voting for the RSP. I also told her that it would have been better had she not voted at all. This led to a quarrel,” said Prasanta.

His mother Anjali also admitted that Moumita had be-en subjected to several barbs. “My daughter-in-law could not take the digs lightly. My son and she quarrelled over them last night. But we never imagined she would commit suicide,” she said.

After Rahul lodged the complaint this afternoon, a police team went to Bhatpara but Prasanta, his parents and younger brother were missing.

Rahul said his sister would not miss CPM rallies before getting married. “How could she take her in-laws’ insults?”

A suicide abetment case has been started, said Arun Das, the inspector in charge of Behrampore police station, about 200km from Calcutta.