Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday made an unscheduled stop at Madhupur village of Suti in Murshidabad to speak with half-a-dozen women binding bidis, was shocked to learn that they earned a pittance for their labour and tried in vain to bind a bidi himself.

Rahul, however, did not respond when one of the women told him about the unmet wage-hike promise of Abhishek Banerjee, leader of INDIA partner Trinamul.

Rahul, who on Thursday morning, shortly before departing Malda for Murshidabad during his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, said he wanted to visit bidi-binders, made the halt on his way to Raghunathganj. There are about 10 lakh bidi-binders in Murshidabad district, mostly women.

“This is such a difficult job! How do you do it so effortlessly?” Rahul was quoted asking the women, after five minutes of trying to bind a bidi and giving up.

Bidi-binders Elia Bibi, 32, Afsana Bibi, 26, Sahinara Khatun, 30, Sulema Pervin, 34, and Rima Khatun, 40, laughed at Rahul's question. Then, Rahul asked the women how much they made. When told they would earn Rs 178 for 1,000 bidis, he was astonished.

“Is that enough for your families, for your children's education?” Rahul reportedly asked and heard a resounding "no" from the women, who also told him that they bind between 700 and 1,200 bidis a day.

Most of these women said their husbands, sons, brothers, and fathers were away in cities or other states as migrant workers. The men make around Rs 300 a day in Bengal and Rs 500-Rs 800 elsewhere in the country.

“But this is not enough to lead a decent life,” said Pervin.

Rahul told the women he would think of something to help increase their wages and improve the quality of their lives.

One of them told him that Abhishek, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamul MP, promised to have their wages raised to at least Rs 230-240 per 1,000 bidis, “within a month or six weeks” of the Sagardighi bypoll in February last year, but it didn't happen. Rahul, whose party’s high command remains keen on salvaging the INDIA partnership with Trinamul before Lok Sabha polls, seemed to evade the topic, and instead asked the women about the quality of the raw materials supplied for their job.

The women asked Rahul about his mother Sonia and sister Priyanka, to which he said they were well. Then, he took their leave.

“Raja’r chheley rajai hoy (A king's son inevitably becomes king)…. His time will come, sooner or later,” said bidi-binder Afsana Bibi.