After BJP Picks Sandeshkhali Survivor As Candidate, Posters Against Her

Kolkata:

Handwritten posters appeared in a few places in Bengal’s Sandeshkhali denouncing the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll nominee Rekha Patra, an alleged victim of torture at the hands of arrested and now-suspended Trinamool leader Shajahan Sheikh and his aides.

The BJP pointed to the TMC for the posters, while the state’s ruling party rejected the charge.

Ms Patra, who is yet to join the BJP officially, was fielded from the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat. Sandeshkhali is part of that constituency.

Posters with slogans – “We don’t want Rekha as a candidate” and “We don’t want Rekha Patra as BJP candidate” – were found plastered today, a day after her nomination was announced from the seat.

A local BJP leader said, “The posters are not ours. The Trinamool Congress has done this to indulge in cheap politics.” The TMC, however, has denied the accusation.

Some local women are happy that Ms Patra has been nominated to contest the election.

“We could not see an MP in the past. Now we may have an MP from our village,” one of them said.

Ms Patra was among the most vocal protestors in Sandeshkhali. The police arrested Shibu Hazra, a local muscleman and Shajahan Sheikh’s associate, based on her complaint.

She is also believed to have been a part of the group that met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of his public meeting in Barasat on March 6 and narrated the plight of the women to him.

“Let Mamata Banerjee wipe the tears of women like her, who are suffering in silence and are subject to her apathy before she asks for their vote,” Amit Malviya, the BJP’s Bengal co-incharge, wrote on X.

The riverine island of Sandeshkhali in the state’s North 24 Parganas district was on the boil for several days over allegations of sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing by Sheikh and his aides.

Sheikh was arrested by the state police last month in connection with an assault on Enforcement Directorate officers on January 5. The CBI is now investigating the case and Sheikh is now in the custody of the central agency.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)