KOLKATA: In a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee at a rally on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that they were insensitive to the atrocities and sexual assault on women in Sandeshkhali. “The entire nation is in dismay, in anger over what happened with our mothers and sisters in Sandeshkhali,” he said.
Without naming TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, who was arrested on Thursday, Modi indicated that the Sandeshkhali stir by the local women will be the BJP’s key poll plank for the Lok Sabha elections. Urging the women electorate to respond decisively against the heinous acts by TMC leaders in the North 24 Parganas island, Modi said, “Every injury inflicted by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali must be replied with a vote.”
Later in the day, Mamata met Modi at Raj Bhavan. “I met the PM as part of protocol and courtesy,” she said after the meeting. In his rally at Arambagh in Hooghly, Modi gave credit for Sheikh’s arrest to the BJP’s functionaries in the state, saying they kept up pressure on the Bengal police.
“For Didi (Mamata), political allegiance of certain individuals is more important than addressing the atrocities against women in Sandeshkhali,” Modi charged.