A group of seven ‘victims’ of Sandeshkhali will meet President Draupadi Murmu
A team of seven “victims” of Sandeshkhali will meet President Draupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday to apprise him about crimes against women and alleged land grabbing by local Trinamool leaders and the Central Government in the area. Forces can be demanded.
A BJP leader from Sandeshkhali, who was accompanied by seven people, said they would submit a written memorandum regarding their demand to deploy central forces in the entire Sandeshkhali assembly constituency and not just for a few villages.
Sandeshkhali comes under Basirhat Lok Sabha seat.
The meeting between the Sandeshkhali delegation and President Murmu is being considered politically significant at a time when the BJP is desperate to keep the issue alive as a Lok Sabha election plank to corner the Mamata Banerjee government politically.
“We will inform our President how poor people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were oppressed by the ruling party in our state,” said delegation member Dipankar Nayak.
“We would request them to ensure the deployment of central forces in Sandeshkhali as the lives of many people like us who have been at the forefront of the protests are in danger,” said Nayak, a contractual teacher at Sandeshkhali School. He accused Trinamool’s senior leader Sheikh Shahjahan of using sheep for fish farming.
They had filed complaints of land-grabbing and sexual crimes against the now arrested Shahjahan and his associates Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
All seven reached New Delhi on Thursday. He will meet President Murmu on Friday afternoon at around 12.30 pm.
A BJP source said Friday’s Rashtrapati Bhavan meeting was scheduled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s March 6 rally in Barasat, from where he warned that the Sandeshkhali “storm” would ravage Bengal and Trinamool’s ” Will ensure the end of the “reign of terrorism”.
A source said the BJP is supporting the villagers protesting in various areas of Sandeshkhali.