West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during an election rally.
Credit: PTI
Basirhat (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was heartbroken over the plight of women in Sandeshkhali but asserted that the BJP should not have played with the dignity of women in the trouble-torn area as the "saffron camp's conspiracy now stands exposed".
While 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 Pargnas. 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 within a few days. I will go to meet the people there,' she said.
The riverine Sandeshkhali area—situated on the borders of the Sundarbans, about 100 kilometres from Kolkata—has been on the boil since February with protests over allegations of sexual abuse and land grab against now-arrested TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi can call up anyone he wants. He had called up someone (Rekha Patra) from the area. But he should not forget the dismal track record of the BJP government regarding women's safety and security in the country. The BJP-ruled state Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of cases of assault on women,” she added.