Trinamul has started to pay a cumulative sum of Rs 3.5 lakh to at least 105 farmers whose ponds had been taken on lease by two arrested ruling party leaders — Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar — who, however, did not pay up, at Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas.

Unprecedented in Bengal’s political history, the party’s decision to pay dues of Hazra and Sardar is aimed at damage control as Trinamul doesn’t want to suffer setback in its area of dominance in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. The pay-out exercise will be carried out over the next few days.

“We prepared a list based on complaints of non-payment of lease money, especially by our party leader Uttam Sardar. As the arrested person was our party leader, we decided to raise funds to repay the amount that will not exceed Rs 3.5 lakh,” said Trinamul’s Sandeshkhali MLA Sukumar Mahata, who has been appointed block president in Sandeshkhali II after Hazra’s arrest on Saturday.

Since February 7, several pockets of Sandeshkhali witnessed a flare-up by villagers, mostly led by women, who accused absconding Trinamul leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides — Hazra and Sardar — of grabbing their land, not paying their dues and even sexual assault.

The public outrage took place a month after ED officials and jawans of the central force were assaulted on January 5 when they went to carry out a raid on the Sarberia village residence of Shahjahan in connection with the alleged PDS scam.

Multiple sources in Trinamul said that the decision to pay the dues that Hazra
and Sardar owed to 105 villagers was a desperate attempt to assuage the anger of Sandeshkhali villagers against
the duo and a reflection of the party fear that the outrage might have an electoral impact in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Starting from the suspension and subsequent arrest of Sardar to Hazra being finally nabbed on Saturday to address the people’s demand, the ruling party has been trying multiple methods to douse public anger that has pitch-forked Sandeshkhali to national headlines.

Hazra was arrested on charges of rape. The police have drawn up similar charges against Sardar, who is currently in police custody in connection with another complaint lodged by Sandeshkhali villagers.

Finding itself on the back foot and Opposition parties breathing down its neck, Mamata Banerjee’s government Section 144 to keep rival leaders out of the troubled zone but suffered setbacks in the courts where both the CPM and the BJP challenged the imposition of prohibitory orders and the ban on Internet services.

The decision to pay off dues triggered an ethical debate as a purported video of a Trinamul leader in Sandeshkhali asking for beneficiary support in lieu of money went viral on Monday.

The video, the authenticity of which was not verified by The Telegraph, shows a Trinamul leader and a few others visiting the doorsteps of the complainants and asking them to accept the money but return the favour by supportingthe ruling party in the forthcoming elections. In the video, the woman leader is heard asking a group of women in Sandeshkhali: “If you get your due money on account of the lease, will you support our party?”

The video and the Trinamul’s decision to pay out a section of farmers has triggered a controversy with Opposition parties terming it as malpractice and the “ruling party’s unethical attempt to buy votes for money”.

“The women of Sandeshkhali were tortured and their land looted by the Trinamul goons. Now they arepaying money on condition of returning the favour through support or vote,” saidCPM leader Tanmoy Bhattacharya.

The BJP mounted a fresh attack on the Trinamul and said even money wouldnot help the ruling party regain lost ground in Sandeshkhali.

“Trinamul thinks they will be able to cover their crimesby paying money to the villagers. Their decision to pay dues is an admission of guilt of their leaders. This shows the level of atrocities thatTrinamul leaders carried out in the area...,” said BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.

When asked about the legality of the payment, Sandeskhali MLA, Sukumar Mahata told The Telegraph that the party decided to pay out the villagers as the accused persons were faces of the party in the region.

“Most of the allegations are against Uttam (Sardar). As he was arrested and did not pay the lease amount, we decided to raise funds from our party workers to paythe villagers. Uttam was our leader and that is why we took the responsibility,” Mahata said.

Echoing Mahata, a senior Trinamul leader in North 24-Parganas said the decision to pay the dues the duo owed to the villagers was to make the villagers stop going public with their complaints as the BJP-led Centre was trying to exploit the situation to reap political dividends.

“The rate of lease amount is annually Rs 5,000 per bigha land and there would not be many farmers who have not been paid. The party decided to raise the funds and pay the farmers as soon as possible because we did not want to keep the issue boiling with multiple teams from Delhi visiting Sandeshkhali. As these teams are coming almost every day, villagers are going public with their complaints against the leaders and this is causing great damage to the party before the polls,” the Trinamul leader added.

Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Rekha Sharma, visited Sandeshkhali on Monday and said she received 18 complaints of atrocities on women.

Sharma said President’s Rule was the only way out of the present “lawlessness”.

A source in the BJP said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union homeminister Amit Shah were scheduled to visit the state soon and are likely to mount an attack on the Mamata Banerjee government on the Sandeshkhali issue.

Modi is scheduled to visit Calcutta in the first week of March. Shah is likely to visit the state on February 29.

To counter the “BJP’s propaganda”, Trinamul leaders are visiting homes in Sandeshkhali to acknowledge the “mistakes” of some of their party colleagues while assuring people redress.