Malda district BJP leaders were seen accepting application forms from thousands of people after a rally by leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday for their inclusion in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana amid questions on whether the party was selling a pipedream.

At least 6,000 people stood in queues in front of temporary desks set up at the BSA Ground in Gazole to submit the applications forms to local BJP leaders, who had apparently promised that those participating in Adhikari’s rally would find their names on the list of PMAY beneficiaries. Gazole is around 25km from Malda.

Fulmani Hembram, a resident of Malipara in Majhra panchayat of Gazole block, said when BJP leaders had approached her a few days back asking her to be present at Tuesday’s meeting, she had said a firm no.

“Then, they gave me a form and said if I filled it up and submitted the same after the meeting, they would include my name in the list of beneficiaries for the rural housing scheme. We don’t have a home and like thousands of others, I came here to submit this application so that we get a shade above our heads,” the woman in her mid-forties told The Telegraph.

The woman then showed a form — a photocopy of the PMAY form that had been distributed in 2018 from different panchayat offices — that she had filled up with the help of a local BJP leader. She travelled to Gazole from her native village Malipara with the hope of realising her dream of having a home.

“As I returned to my village and told some of my neighbours that I had submitted the form and would get money to build a house soon, they clarified to me that no new name could be included in the list made in 2018. It is disappointing that poor people like us have been deceived,” said a disenchanted Hembram.

Sources in the state government said around 11.36 lakh beneficiaries were supposed to receive Rs 1.2 lakh each under the scheme in 2022- 23 fiscal.

As the Centre has released the funds, the state government is carrying out an extensive three-phase verification exercise to check the eligibility of the beneficiaries on the list, which was drawn up in 2018. During the verification, names of around one lakh people were struck off and hence, around 10 lakh people are likely to get the benefits in the current fiscal, said sources.

“So far, there is no order to include any new name in the list of beneficiaries. Right now, there is no point in conducting any exercise to gather filled-up forms from people, even if they suit all parameters,” said a senior official of Malda district administration.

Not just Hembram, several others like Manju Baruai and Chabi Bala, who had come to Gazole from far-flung places, realised later that the local BJP leaders had taken them for a ride to have a packed audience at Adhikari’s meeting.

Saumitra Roy, a general secretary of the BJP in Malda north organisational district, tendered his resignation within hours of Adhikari’s meeting. “It was nothing but a plan to get people to the meeting. You can’t simply trick people in such a manner. This is something which I could not take and hence quit the party,” he said.

Ujjwal Dutta, Malda north (organisational) district president, however, said: “It is not important as to whether we succeed in including their names in the lists of PMAY beneficiaries. We want to keep the data to prove that hundreds of genuine beneficiaries have been dropped from the lists by corrupt panchayat representatives of Trinamul.”

Earlier, Trinamul leaders in some districts had alleged that the BJP was accumulating people for protests against alleged corruption in the PMAY by promising that they, too, would get houses. “What happened in Gazole today substantiated our claim. The BJP is known for making hollow promises and today, they crossed all limits,” Dinesh Tudu, a Trinamul zilla parishad member from Gazole.

Additional reporting by Alamgir Hossain in Behrampore