Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she would visit Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas on Monday for a state government event.
It would be her first visit to the island that made headlines nationally over alleged sexual harassment of women and land-grab by local Trinamool leaders such as Sheikh Shahjahan, Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
“I will go to Sandeshkhali on December 30 in order to attend a public distribution programme there. People had asked me before the general elections whether I would visit Sandeshkhali. I had said then that I would, eventually,” the chief minister told journamists at state secretariat Nabanna in the evening.
“It will be a government event. We have already completed a number of pending programmes under Lakshmir Bhandar, Banglar Bari and other schemes. Approximately 20,000 beneficiaries from the area will benefit from the state-run schemes. I hope to hand over certificates of several schemes to around a hundred people directly on the stage,” added Mamata.
Since the eruption of Sandeshkhali row earlier this year, the saffron ecosystem, right up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had latched on to it as an issue, hoping it would prove to be Mamata’s Waterloo. But the Lok Sabha election results showed the so-called pan-India issue had failed to dent Trinamool Congress even in the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat within which Sandeshkhali lies.
The last notable instance of Mamata promising a visit to Sandeshkhali was on May 21 during a poll campaign rally for Basirhat. She had then said she would visit the island as soon as her party won from Basirhat.
“Ahead of the elections, the BJP’s Plan A – Sandeshkhali — was foiled by our women. Their Plan B is to foment communal trouble, with temple-mosque, Hindu-Muslim. This is ongoing. I urge the people to ensure there are no riots. We keep our promises; the BJP only resorts to lies,” she had said on May 21.
Mamata was criticised by political rivals for failing to visit Sandeshkhali since trouble broke out there in early February, with women alleging rape and sexual harassment and land-grab by (since suspended) Trinamool strongman Shahjahan and his aides.
Purported sting videos highlighted by Trinamool later appeared to show a local BJP functionary suggesting women had been paid to make the allegations. Some videos seemed to bolster charges that women were made to sign on blank sheets that were filled out as complaints of sex crimes against local Trinamool faces.
Mamata on Thursday also said that on January 1, her party would organise blood-donation camps across Bengal to mark its foundation day. The following day, she would chair a mega administrative review meeting at Nabanna.
Thereafter, on January 6, she will go to Sagar Island for the Gangasagar Mela and visit landmarks such as the Kapil Muni Ashram there.