For 32 years, she was a wife and mother like any other, busy navigating her life, proud of her daughter who was on her way to becoming a doctor from the prestigious R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. But life has not been the same for the BJP’s Panihati candidate since August 9, 2024, after her daughter’s rape and murder. What followed was a blur of profound grief, shock, and a political storm over the way the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government handled the situation that brought common people out on the streets across the state.

A year and seven months since that, the R G Kar victim’s mother has chosen to throw herself into the rough and tumble of Bengal politics and contest the elections from the constituency in North 24 Parganas district “to protect all the daughters of Bengal and to fight for justice for her own”.

“Everything changed after that phone call (on August 9, 2024). Since then, my life has been completely different, and I have been running from one court to another. Now, I am urging people to deliver justice by uprooting this government. Will our daughters be safe under this government? Never,” she tells The Indian Express on the campaign trail with her husband by her side. Panihati will vote in the second phase of Bengal polls on April 29.