From threatening to cut off the hands and feet of his political rivals to threatening to pour acid into the mouth of Opposition leaders, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Abdur Rahim Boxi is no stranger to stirring controversy with his macabre remarks.

The 62-year-old district unit president of TMC’s Malda unit was once a popular leader of the RSP, a Left Front constituent.

Raised in the Ratua area of Malda, a young sporty Boxi was popular in his area for “lathi khela” (playing with sticks), kabaddi, and football.

He was associated with the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) from his youth days. With the Left Front in power in West Bengal, he worked with the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in the Malatipur area of Malda and gained popularity.

He was a Panchayat Samiti member in Ratua-I, before getting elected as a Zila Parishad member of Malda district from Ratua in 2008.

His first big political break came in the 2011 Assembly elections. Despite a wave against the Left Front, Boxi, then 47, was elected MLA from Malatipur on an RSP ticket. In the same election, the Communists lost power to Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in the state for the first time in 34 years.

Five years later, in 2016, as the Left Front shrank further politically, Boxi narrowly lost the re-election bid from the Malatipur Assembly seat. He lost to the Congress candidate by nearly 2,500 votes.

In the 2018 panchayat election, Boxi’s wife, Ayesha Khatun, failed to win the Zila Parishad election from Ratua, and the TMC goons allegedly attacked their house.

But within six months of the incident, Boxi joined the TMC on January 11, 2019. BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, who was then in the TMC, welcomed Boxi to the party.

Joining the TMC proved beneficial for him. His popularity within the ruling party soared, and in the 2021 Assembly elections, he was elected MLA from Malatipur again as a TMC candidate.

Within one year, he was chosen as TMC’s district president of Malda.

Just days before Boxi threatened to pour acid in the mouth of BJP chief whip Shankar Ghosh after the latter called migrant workers “Rohingyas” or “Bangladeshis”, the Opposition party accused the TMC MLA of getting his daughter, Asifa Sabnam, a government job with MoS (Irrigation) Sabina Iasmin.

“Sabina Yasmin used her influence and gave job to Abdur Rahim Boxi’s daughter when lakhs of students are sitting on the streets of West Bengal demanding jobs,” BJP MP and Union Minister Sukanta Majumder had said recently.

Refuting the BJP’s charge, Boxi had said his daughter was married and lived with her husband. “So, I don’t know where she got the job,” the TMC MLA had said.

Last week, while addressing people gathered to protest alleged atrocities against Bengali-speaking migrant workers in other Indian states, Boxi slammed BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh for his remarks in the Assembly in which he called Bengali-speaking migrants “Rohingyas and Bangladeshis”.

“The one who shamelessly says that the 30 lakh migrant workers of Bengal who work outside are not Bengalis… they are Rohingyas, they are Bangladeshis. He shouted this. I said it then, and I am saying it today — if I hear this from you again, I will burn your voice to ashes with acid inside your mouth. You should know that this is West Bengal. We Bengalis will not give you a place to speak. I will burn your face with acid,” Boxi said as he urged supporters to “tear down BJP flags” and socially boycott the party in Malda. The BJP accused the TMC leader of promoting violence.

In Malda, Boxi is known for social work. He has established two higher secondary schools in Pukuria and Ratua. His son, Riyazul Karim Boxi, holds the position of secretary of the management committees in the two schools. Riyazul was also elected Zila Parishad member on a TMC ticket.