Former MLA Subhas Mondal, currently serving as chairman of a state-run transport undertaking, was seen selling vegetables at a village haat yesterday.
Mondal, a three-time MLA, hails from a farming family and now heads the South Bengal State Transport Corporation, a post he was given after his defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections. As a Trinamul Congress candidate, he had won the 2016 election from Bhatar in East Burdwan, where he had earlier served as a CPI-M MLA in 1996 and 2001.
Locals were surprised to find Mondal selling vegetables at the weekly haat in his native village Banonabogram, Bhatar, yesterday. Seated on the ground alongside other vendors, he drew curious onlookers but remained unfazed. He said: “I am a farmer and simply chose to sell my surplus crop in the haat like others, as Sunday was the chairman’s holiday.” He added: “I sold a substantial amount of green chillies, cabbages, pointed gourds, bitter gourds and tomatoes that had been harvested on Friday and Saturday.”
By the end of the day, Mondal had sold vegetables worth Rs 2,000. During the paddy cultivation season last year, he was also seen sowing saplings.