12 Kolkata: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would visit Sandeshkhali on Dec 30 — her first in more than a year — to attend a state govt public distribution programme, where 20,000 people are scheduled to receive benefits of the Lakshmir Bhandar and Banglar Bari welfare schemes.
The politically restive Sandeshkhali had hit the headlines since Jan 5, following an attack on an ED team that had gone to conduct a raid, and multiple allegations of rape, land-grab, corruption and extortion against a section of local netas. The issue became a rallying point with the opposition in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. BJP even fielded Rekha Patra, an abuse survivor, from Basirhat — of which Sandeshkhali is a part — but she lost to TMC's Haji Nurul by a margin of 3.3 lakh votes. But Nurul, a cancer survivor, died in Sept, making a bypoll imminent.
Banerjee has not visited Sandeshkhali since Jan.
"I will go to Sandeshkhali for a public distribution programme at 1pm on Dec 30," Banerjee announced on Thursday. She added that she had been asked "by several people" before the LS polls whether she would go to Sandeshkhali. to which she had replied that she would, "but later." "This is an official programme of state govt," Banerjee said, adding, "By now, we have been able to complete some pending applications of Lakshmir Bhandar and Banglar Bari. Around 20,000 beneficiaries will be handed over the services, 100 of them directly from me."
Despite her heavy loss in all six assembly seats in the LS polls. Patra managed to eke out an 8,387-vote lead in the Sandeshkhali assembly segment. She had also challenged her 3.3 lakh defeat in Calcutta HC, but this became inconsequential since MP Nurul's death.
Sukumar Mahata, the TMC MLA from Sandeshkhali, said: "Sandeshkhali is normal now. A few people had fallen for political provocateurs but they realise that they had been misled. People here are waiting for the chief minister."
In private, TMC netas said the Sandeshkhali visit was a deft move by the CM to establish that the Bengal govt — unlike the Centre — did not discriminate against anyone when it came to social benefits. "On one hand, Centre has blocked NREGS funds and Awas Yojana schemes in Bengal after their 2021 poll drubbing. On the other, Banerjee is reaching out to places where Trinamool had lost politically. This is not lost on people," one of them said.
(With inputs from Sanjib Chakraborty)
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