KOLKATA: Slamming Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sujata Mondal has alleged that the party that abolished Triple Talaq is asking her husband Saumitra Khan to divorce her.
This comes after BJP leader and Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan sent a legal divorce notice to his wife Sujata Mondal who was earlier a BJP member but has now joined TMC.
Speaking to ANI, when asked the reason for any problem in her relationship, Mondal said, "When politics enter your personal lives, it becomes bad for the relationship. Saumitra is in the company of bad people from BJP who are trying to instigate him against me. The party that abolished Triple Talaq is asking Saumitra to divorce me today."
Explaining her reason to leave the BJP and join TMC, Mondal said, "I joined the party keeping in mind a political view, for respect and security, I left the BJP and joined the TMC."
"I don't know how I am getting divorce notice. How my husband who is an MP of BJP and president of its Yuva Morcha was saying of giving me a divorce in an open press meet. This is the same party which is against Triple Talaq. And the MP of that party is giving me divorce only because I am changing my party," she said.
"Still today I love Soumitra and regard him as my husband. I am still wearing Sindhoor (vermilion) of his name. Just because of party pressure and to establish a trust for his party, he is ending ten years of his relationship with me. Ours was a love marriage and how it can end in a day," the TMC leader said.
"I never thought of any demand. I was not getting respect in the party and I was taken for granted," she said regarding the BJP.
When asked about her contribution to the electoral victory of Soumitra, she said that she sacrificed a lot for him.
"The one who loves her husband supports him not only in good days but also in bad days. So when my husband was struggling and when he joined the BJP after leaving TMC then I supported her and fought for his respect and to make him an MP. I sacrificed a lot for him."
"I was always a dedicated person when I was with BJP. I was dedicated to them and the same is with TMC now. In TMC whatever direction is given to me by party top leadership I will follow that," she added.
"One thing is that I am noticing that no leader from the BJP is asking him why he is giving divorce. One of Soumitra's relative is in TMC, then why he is not suggesting her husband to divorce her and ask her to leave the house. Why only he is acting against me," the TMC leader said.
"BJP should do something that my relationship with Soumitra is saved which the TMC is saying that your relationship will not be affected if you and your husband are in two different parties," she told ANI.
"He is making a great sacrifice for the BJP. If the BJP comes to power in the state then I would like to see him as Chief Minister and myself as his wife," she added.
Khan's lawyer Sameer Kumar sent the notice on the former's behalf where it is mentioned that the marriage of Khan and Mondal was solemnised in July 2016 under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 as per Hindu rituals and ceremonies.
The notice further says that Khan and his family were subjected to mental and emotional torture which increased beyond the level of tolerance and hence he wants to dissolve his marriage with Mondal.
The legal divorce notice further calls upon Mondal to execute the divorce under mutual consent under Section 13 (B) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 within 30 days failing which Khan will be at liberty to file appropriate proceedings in a court of law.