Heartbroken over plight of Sandeshkhali women, says Mamata as she slams BJP

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (May 21) said she was heartbroken for the plight of women in Sandeshkhali and asserted that the BJP should not have played with the dignity of women in the trouble-torn area as its "conspiracy now stands exposed".

Addressing a rally in Basirhat, Banerjee slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talking to Sandeshkhali protester and BJP candidate Rekha Patra over the phone, alleging that the country has the “worst track record in terms of women's safety and security under the BJP rule”.

Sandeshkhali falls under the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in North 24 Parganas district.

“I am sorry for whatever has happened to the women of Sandeshkhali and the way they have been humiliated. I express my sadness from the core of my heart. Nobody should dare to play with the dignity of women,” Banerjee said.

She also said, “People would have never understood how the BJP had hatched the conspiracy, had the videos not surfaced. The BJP should not play with the dignity of women,” Banerjee said in her first visit to the Lok Sabha seat since the flare-up in January this year.

Banerjee’s remarks come in the backdrop of multiple purported videos surfacing on social media, which claimed that a local BJP leader made several women of Sandeshkhali sign blank papers, which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault against TMC leaders.

The TMC supremo said she would soon visit the Sandeshkhali region.

“As soon as our candidate Haji Nurul wins Basirhat, my first visit will be to Sandeshkhali. I will go to meet the people there,” she said.

Referring to the Calcutta High Court order on Monday, which has issued an injunction restraining the BJP from publishing advertisements that violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) until June 4, the day the Lok Sabha election process ends, the chief minister alleged that the BJP has been spreading canards through misleading advertisements.

(With agency inputs)