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Former councillor loses Bengal civic polls as independent, ends life
The shock of losing a civic election in her stronghold led a former councillor in Bengal’s Nadia district to commit suicide.
A former two-time Congress councillor who joined the Trinamool Congress in 2012 but contested Bengal’s civic polls as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket, killed herself Thursday after losing the elections by 30 votes in ward 1 of Cooper’s Camp municipality in Nadia district.
Forty-year-old Supriya Dey allegedly took sleeping pills after the results were declared on Thursday. She got 320 votes while her rival from the Trinamool Congress, Ashok Sarkar won 350.
She was disheartened to see that another former Trinamool worker, Prasanta Mondal, who also contested as an independent secured 179 votes. Supriya Dey felt she would have easily won the contest if Mondal did not make a dent in what she considered was her pocket borough.
The ruling Trinamool Congress swept the elections to the seven civic bodies (Durgapur, Haldia, Cooper’s Camp, Buniadpur, Dhupguri, Pashkura, Nalhati). BJP came a distant second while CPI(M) and Congress were wiped out.
“She consumed sleeping pills when she failed to digest the jibes by Trinamool workers after the results were declared,” said her husband Samir Dey.
“None humiliated her. Every contest throws up winners and losers. But that does not mean one has to end one’s life,” Sarkar, the victorious candidate told the media.
She was first taken to the subdivisional hospital in Ranaghat and then to J N M Hospital in Kalyani, where doctors declared her dead.
Read more: TMC sweeps seven civic bodies in Bengal, BJP a distant second, Left wiped out
Supriya Dey won from ward 1 of the civic body in 2007 and 2012. After the 2012 election, she joined Trinamool Congress along with several other party councillors. She was known to be a follower of district Congress leader and MLA Shankar Singh, who recently switched to Trinamool Congress.
After Singh switched parties, Supriya Dey was certain of getting a ticket, but was disappointed when she did not get it.
She could not stomach the humiliation and decided to contest as an independent. Party sources said Dey was dejected after the results were announced and returned home.
“What happened was beyond imagination,” Shankar Singh told the media.
