A Behrampore homemaker went back to vote for Adhir Chowdhury as her son lay lifeless in hospital, hours after long poll queues had forced her to return home where she had found the young man hanging from a fan.

What drove Renuka Maddi, 46, to put the crushing grief aside for a while was the “unbearable fear of Dada (Chowdhury) losing by one vote”.

The Bengal Congress veteran, who has been winning the Behrampore Lok Sabha seat since 1999, had helped the Maddis reclaim land grabbed by a local tough 21 years ago.

“I know a parent’s pain. I am shocked as well as overwhelmed that a woman could think of voting for me on the day she lost her son. I am humbled by this,” Chowdhury, whose 18-year-old daughter Shreyashi had allegedly committed suicide in 2006, said after meeting the Maddis at their home on Tuesday.

Renuka’s husband Sadananda is a railway driver currently training in Dhanbad.

Police sources said Rajat, their 21-year-old son, was unemployed and in a relationship with a local girl but the Maddis did not approve of the match.

“It appears to be a suicide. However, we are waiting for the post-mortem report,” an officer said.

But Renuka, a supervisor of rural health workers, and Sadananda said they were “clueless” about the reasons behind the death of Rajat.

The couple have two elder sons, who are twins and work in private firms in Calcutta.

After Renuka found Rajat hanging from the ceiling fan at their home in Majhdia village on Behrampore’s outskirts, she and some neighbours rushed him to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

“While I was waiting outside the post-mortem room, I began to wonder, what if Dada (Chowdhury) loses by one vote? I could not bear the thought of that, so I rushed back to the polling booth,” Renuka said.

Cut to 1998 when Renuka lived with her husband and three sons in Madhupur, another area of Behrampore, and Chowdhury was then an MLA.

“We had bought a two-cottah plot to build a home there but the thug claimed it was his land and wouldn’t let us build a home. I went to Dada (Chowdhury) for help and he secured the land for us. But because of the problems there, we sold the plot and came to Majhdia. I am indebted to Dada,” said Renuka.