KOLKATA: Making it clear that the party is all set to utilise Sandeshkhali stir as its key poll-plank in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal BJP on Thursday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would attend a political event on the outskirts of Kolkata where the saffron camp is planning to bring the North 24 Parganas island’s victims of alleged sexual abuses.
“The Prime Minister will visit Kolkata and preliminarily the date has been fixed on March 6. Other than attending government programmes, he will be at an event in Barasat, North 24 Parganas, where a large number of women supporters will assemble. We will talk to the women of Sandeshkhali, who were sexually abused by the ruling party’s local leaders, and if they want, we will bring them at the event,” said BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar.
The Barasat event will be focused on the plight of the women in Sandeshkhali, said a source in the state BJP. “We will assemble a large number of women at the venue. Our target will be bringing sexual abuse victims from Sandeshkhali to woo the women electorates highlighting TMC’s atrocities against them. The presence of the Prime Minister and Sandeshkhali victims will deliver a messages to the Hindu voters across the state against the ruling TMC,” said a BJP leader.
The leader said Barasat is one of the Lok Sabha constituencies that the saffron has targeted to snatch away from the TMC’s existing 23 seats in the upcoming general elections. While addressing a recent rally at Deganga in the same district, Leader of Opposition had said, “Barasat is one of the Lok Sabha seats of 35 in the state that Union Home minister Amit Shah selected to win in the 2024 LS polls.”
On Thursday, a four-member team of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) visited strife-hit Sandeshkhali island to take of the situation regarding atrocities on women and forcible land grabbing of the tribal area by the ruling TMC satraps. The team, led by NCST vice-chairman Ananta Naik, interacted with local people, especially women, who narrated their plight orchestrated by TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh and his henchmen Shibaprasad Halder and Uttam Sardar. The commission also sought a report from the state government within three days.
“If the report from the government is not satisfactory, we may recommend President’s Rule in the state,” said Naik.