Mamata Banerjee visits Sandeshkhali for first time since protests, asks locals to not pay bribes for welfare schemes

Addressing a public event on Monday, Banerjee urged the residents not to be swayed by misinformation or inducements.

Kolkata: “Please don’t let unscrupulous people exploit you,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the women of Sandeshkhali as she visited the island near Sundarbans on Monday almost a year after the village hit the headlines and found itself at the centre of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign against the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state.

She told the people of Sandeshkhali that they should not bribe anyone to get the benefits of the welfare schemes rolled out by the state’s Trinamool Congress government.

“Please do not pay money to anyone to get the benefits under the welfare schemes, which we are providing. These programmes are run by the state government. You are getting benefits directly through your bank accounts. Remember this. The money is of the people. It's your right,” said the chief minister.

She made the comment even as the ruling TMC’s workers and leaders were often accused by the BJP and other opposition parties in the state of extorting money from the beneficiaries of the welfare schemes introduced by her government.

Sandeshkhali hit the headlines on January 5 this year when a team of Enforcement Directorate officials raided the residence of the local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with a probe into alleged irregularities in the public distribution system and came under attack from a mob.

This followed an agitation by local people against illegal land-grabbing by Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides. The women took the lead as the allegations of sexual harassment against the gang surfaced. The BJP moved fast to take the political advantage out of it and picked up Rekha Patra, a local woman, who had by then come to be known as the face of the protest, as its candidate for Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.

Sheikh Shahjahan remained elusive for almost two months before being arrested by the state police on February 28 and handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

 The BJP also sent delegations of women from Sandeshkhali to different constituencies across the state to campaign against the TMC during the Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP heavyweights made it a point to refer to “atrocities by TMC goons” in Sandeshkhali while campaigning in West Bengal.

 “I know that a big game was behind the stir and money was in play. People later realised that the entire matter was a lie. The truth eventually comes out,” Banerjee said as she visited Sandeshkhali on the penultimate day of 2024.

 A day before her visit to Sandeshkhali, Sujay Mandal, who had emerged as one of the prominent leaders of the agitation against the TMC, joined the ruling party itself.

The BJP thought that the allegation that she allowed Sheikh Shahjahan to run his illegal business empire and the reign of atrocities in Sandeshkhali would fit perfectly into its campaign narrative that her party was pursuing a policy of appeasement of the minority community. The saffron party also sought to use the allegation of sexual harassment against him and his aides to erode the TMC’s support base among the women. But it did not work and the TMC’s Haji Nurul Islam won from Basirhat, beating the BJP’s Rekha Patra by a margin of over 3.33 lakh votes.

 The BJP also could not do well elsewhere in West Bengal, winning only 12 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state – six less than its 2019 score. The TMC had a landslide victory, winning 29 seats. The Congress won one LS seat from the state.

“I do not want to keep these things (the anti-TMC protests) in mind. I want Sandeshkhali to progress and local girls and boys to achieve success. This is not a place of riots. We want peace, and we do not want devastation,” the chief minister said during her visit to the island village on Monday. “I will tell you to live together and beware of mischievous people. And women should not go if someone calls them. If you want to avail the benefit of a state-run scheme, then the Duare Sarkar (the government at doorstep) will come to you.”