The BJP has formed a squad of around 300 Sandeshkhali women, including victims of alleged atrocities by arrested Trinamul Congress strongman Sheikh Shajhahan and his aides, to narrate their tales of torture to party activists in 42 Lok Sabha constituencies across Bengal.
“Two teams, each comprising five Sandeshkhali women, will visit all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. They will meet women, including BJP workers and leaders, to share their experience of torture and harassment by Trinamul leaders,” said Jagannath Chattopadhyay, a BJP state general secretary.
“Those who will be present at the meeting with women from Sandeshkhali will reach out to every women voter in their area to tell them about the terror that Trinamul leaders had perpetrated on the North 24-Parganas island,” he added.
The Sandeshkhali women who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of his March 6 Barasat rally are also in the two groups that will tour the state.
A source said three teams from the remote island had already reached Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar, the three constituencies that would go to the polls in the first phase on April 19, for the BJP campaign.
The BJP has pitched the Sandeshkhali issue as one of the major weapons to corner Trinamul that has been banking on the 49.19 per cent women voters in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP has fielded Sandeshkhali victim Rekha Patra as the party’s nominee in the Basirhat Lok Sabha segment in which the Sandeshkhali Assembly seat falls. The party has also planned to take Patra to multiple election rallies across Bengal.
As the Mamata Banerjee government had increased financial assistance under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, Trinamul has prepared a roadmap to reach out to around 3.73 crore women voters in the state with the message of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“When Trinamul will reach out to the women voters with Lakhsmir Bhandar, we will counter their campaign with stories of Trinamul’s terror and midnight calls to women by ruling party leaders like Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali,” said a BJP leader.
