A powerful man in his fifties was enjoying his siesta on a sultry 1982 afternoon. Several benefit seekers and followers were patiently waiting outside his bedroom. Suddenly, they heard shrieks for help from inside and rushed in. They saw the powerful man had almost throttled a man by pinning him to the floor. Seething in rage, the powerful man was shouting: “You would only ask for jobs. You won’t even let me sleep… I will kill you, I will throttle you.”

The poor job-seeker was somehow rescued from the clutches of the powerful man. The followers of the powerful man calmed him down. After some time he emerged from the bedroom, and settled in his chair in the adjoining large room, known as his durbar, decorated with a Raj-era chandelier.

There was pin-drop silence in the room. The powerful man ordered production of the delinquent youth. The followers pleaded for forgiveness but as he was adamant the youth, reluctant to face the man, had to be brought to the durbar.

“What’s your name?” asked the powerful man once the youth, trembling in fear, stood in front of him. The powerful man took out a small piece of paper, wrote a note and handed him over the chit asking him to produce it before the general manager of a nearby public sector unit.

“You will get your job,” the powerful man said and the youth scooted from the scene.

Ghani Khan’s brother and Malda South MP Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury. Telegraph file picture

One of the followers of the powerful man, who was in the room that afternoon, narrated the above story. “The young man did get a job in a public sector company,” recounted the follower.

He briefed the story as he tried to explain why that powerful man, ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury, still remained a factor in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, 13 years after his death, in his fief, Malda.

Charismatic leaders do have appeal even after death. But the stories about what Ghani Khan did for the unemployed people in Malda — a Congress bastion and one of the poorest districts in the state — are significant at a time high-decibel chest thumping on India’s growing military might under the leadership of Narendra Modi has changed the narrative ahead of the general elections. The legacy of Ghani Khan, who had served as a minister both in the state and the Centre as part of Congress governments, is a reminder that an individual’s bread and butter is probably more important than a country’s brawn.

Ghani Khan, fondly remembered as Barkat da in Malda, had served as a minister in the cabinet of Siddhartha Shankar Ray in the state before becoming Union minister in charge of departments like coal and railways under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The eight-time MP died in 2006, but as over 32 lakh people prepare to elect their representatives from two constituencies, Malda North and Malda South, he still finds mention in the political discourse.

The two constituencies were carved out of Malda in 2009 and his family members — brother Abu Hasem a.k.a Dalu (from Malda South) and niece Mausam Benazir Noor (Malda North) — have been representing them as Congress nominees since then. Both of them had sailed through in the last two Lok Sabha polls riding on Ghani Khan’s legacy.

This time, there are two twists in the tale.

First, unlike the last two occasions, Mausam is a Trinamul nominee after she quit the Congress just ahead of the polls. And her cousin Isha, son of Abu Hasem, is one of her opponents.Second, the BJP has emerged as a key contender in both the seats with significant Muslim population — 65 per cent in South and 35 per cent in North.

“I don’t know who will win, but I wish we had a candidate like Barkat da,” said Debasish Ghosh, a twenty-something youth, who runs a paan-cigarette shop in Malda town, and a voter of the South segment. “I have heard stories of how he would give jobs to people of Malda. I wish he were alive today.”

Ghani Khan’s nephew Isha Khan Choudhury, the Congress candidate from Malda North, campaigns on a bullock cart. (PTI)

Ghosh’s only recollection of the leader is the crowd that accompanied the former Union minister during his last journey, but the youth’s desire to be represented by Ghani Khan somehow lends credence to a statistic that the Modi regime has been desperate to brush under the carpet.

The unemployment rate now is estimated to be at a 45-year high, reaching 7.8 per cent in urban areas and 5.3 per cent in rural ones, according to a leaked National Sample Survey Office report for 2017-18.

Ghosh, who said he could not study beyond Class XII due to economic reasons, does not know about the unemployment rate in the country, but he knows that people with similar educational qualifications had landed up with government jobs when Ghani Khan represented Malda.

A retired state government employee, who was recruited as a Group D staff in the state health department way back in 1974, endorsed Ghosh’s views.

“Barkat da had his followers. I had requested one of them after passing higher secondary whether he would help me get a job. They noted my name and I got a job in a few days,” recounted the man, requesting anonymity.

He added that he never had to attend any Congress rallies or give any money to Ghani Khan’s aides for helping him bag a job. Two more retired officers, one from CMDA and another from Ircon, the railway’s construction arm, narrated similar stories of their Barkat da’s benevolence.

At a time there are allegations of government jobs being sold at a price by political masters who also demand lifelong loyalty, stories on how Ghani Khan’s army would go around the district and collect names of youths — irrespective of their religion or party affiliation — in need of jobs resonate across Malda.

One of the aides of the former minister recounted that they would draw up the list of employable youths and the leader would forward it to the relevant department for necessary action.

“Interviews used to be held as per the process and the Malda youths would get appointment letters. At times, we would deliver those letters from state or central government departments or PSUs to the job seekers,” the aide said.

Questions can surely be raised on whether the process was right or whether people from Malda got undue advantage in the job market because of Ghani Khan. But that someone like the paan shop owner Ghosh misses Ghani Khan shows that people expect leaders to create jobs.

The poll pitches of the contenders in Malda are far from this reality. The BJP, bolstered with a surprise show in Malda in last year’s panchayat polls, is building its campaign on the Balakot air strike and its aim to divide voters along religious lines in a district that has often seen communal strife. Malda being on the border with Bangladesh, the BJP leaders are also harping on Modi’s pledge to draw up a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. In an attempt to woo Muslim votes, Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul leadership are busy highlighting the BJP’s divisive politics besides promising that they would not allow an NRC-like exercise in Bengal.

For the Congress, the lone asset is Ghani Khan’s name while the Left nominee — contesting in the North as Alimuddin Street has given Abu Hasem a walkover — seems to be in search of a potent poll pitch.

Given the intense competition and the polarisation in Malda — and possibility of electoral malpractice in parts of both constituencies — predicting the winners is not easy. But there is little doubt that a certain Khan Chowdhury has come alive in Malda ahead of the polls, 13 years after his death.

Malda South & North vote on April 23