BJP leaders on Sunday organised a programme to air Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat programme in the courtyard of Mihilal Sheikh, who had lost his wife and minor daughter in the Bogtui carnage on March 21 last year.

Sources in the saffron ecosystem said they considered Sunday’s event a “political achievement” at a time they were actively planning to breach the minority vote bank of the Trinamul Congress.

All 10 victims of the Bogtui massacre were from the minority community.

“We are happy to have organised the event at Bogtui village in the presence of those who lost their family members to the violence caused by the Trinamul government. The minority community understands that they were used by the Trinamul as a vote bank” said BJP’s Birbhum president Dhruba Saha.

BJP insiders said the advantages of “using” Bogtui were two-fold, citing its large minority population who witnessed the killing of innocent women and children in Trinamul-related violence.

Secondly, Birbhum’s status as a “known Trinamul stronghold” is currently threatened in the absence of former district chief Anubrata Mondal, who was sent to Tihar jail on Tuesday in connection with the cattle smuggling case.

“Those who lost their family members in the carnage have already shifted their allegiances to us. Now we will take them to various minority-populated villages to show them how people of their community have been suffering in the Trinamul regime,” said Rashmi Dey, the Birbhum president of BJP’s Mahila Morcha.

Sunday’s development came after leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari inaugurated a memorial to the victims of the massacre on its first anniversary on March 21 this year, the development posing a challenge for the Trinamul given that both the victims and the accused were from the minority community.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her meeting with Birbhum leaders on March 24 in Calcutta had expressed her dissatisfaction over BJP’s reported activities with members of the victims’ families. She had then assigned two senior leaders — Sheikh Kajal of Nanoor and Syed Siraj Zimmi of Rampurhat — to take care of Bogtui politically.

The leaders of the Birbhum core committee that Mamata formed on Sunday held its maiden meeting where the issues and challenges for the party in Bogtui were discussed.

“We don’t know about the shifting of political allegiance of those people who lost their family members. Mamata Banerjee stood by the families from day one and we will continue to extend them our support,” said Bikash RoyChowdhury, one of the senior members of Trinamul’s core committee that was formed to stand in after the arrest of Anubrata Mondal.

Mihilal Sheikh, whose courtyard was used for Sunday’s programme by the BJP, said he would be with the BJP and work for the saffron party in the upcoming elections.

“I have already joined the BJP as I saw how several Trinamul leaders were getting arrested on charges of corruption. I thank chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her support but I am not happy with the actions of Trinamulleaders here,” he said.