Sandeshkhali, a village in North Parganas district, first hit the headlines on January 5 when Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials were attacked by hundreds of people while on their way to raid the house of strongman and former Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with an alleged ration distribution scam.
Three ED officials were injured in the attack and Shahjahan went absconding. Women of Sandeshkhali took to streets with brooms and sticks and blocked the road on February 8, demanding the arrest of Shahjahan and his two aides Shibu Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
The next day, women protestors attacked properties of Hazra and set afire his poultry farm, allegedly set up on land forcibly taken over by the Trinamool leader. Women also made repeated sexual assault allegations against Shahjahan and his supporters. After a month-long demonstrations by Sandeshkhali women, the police arrested Shahjahan on February 29. However, a video went viral where a BJP leader claimed the whole episode was scripted by the BJP.
Though the CM never visited Sandeshkhali during the turbulent period, during a Lok Sabha election campaign, she promised to visit the village after the election.
“Our Chief Minister always kept her promise. Hence, she is coming to Sandeshkhali on December 30. We are happy and the people of Sandeshkhali also will be happy,” Haladhar Ari, a local TMC leader, said.
Syria Pervin, a BJP leader during the time of the incident movement and later joined TMC just before the Lok Sabha elections, claimed that everyone knew that the BJP was behind the Sandeshkhali incident which was why the BJP lost their support base in the region.
BJP leader Archana Majumder who led the movement in Sandeshkhali alleged that the people of Sandeshkhali will not forget the fact the CM safeguarded the anti-socials who molested Sandeshkhali women. “The Chief Minister is always welcome but she never came during the women’s movement,” she said.
Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari said he stood by Sandeshkhali’s side during difficult times. “The Chief Minister is going. It is good, I will do the programme the next day (December 31). I may not be able to organise a big event like the Chief Minister’s,” Adhikari said.
He also reminded that the Trinamool won Sandeshkhali by a large margin in the 2021 Assembly polls, but in the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP was ahead by 8,500 votes in that area. Taking a dig at Mamata’s government distribution programme, Subvendu claimed, “Even if the CM goes and gives one crore rupees, the people of the SC, ST community will not vote for Trinamool!”
CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty also raised questions about Mamata’s Sandeshkhali visit. “When the people of Sandeshkhali needed the Chief Minister the most, she did not go. When people demanded punishment for the culprits, she was nowhere to be found. Now she is to stand up to the criminals,” Chakraborty said
Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh, however, has slammed the Opposition for “exaggerating” the Sandeshkhali unrest. “There is peaceful environment, development work is going on at full speed. If there is injustice, it will be strongly condemned and action would be taken. But the exaggeration is out,” Ghosh said.