West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Sukanta Majumdar announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public rally in Arambagh and Krishnanagar in the State on March 1 and 2, respectively.
“Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed rally is scheduled for March 1 in Arambagh. On March 2, his rally has been proposed to be held in Krishnanagar. He will address both the rallies and also dedicate a few public schemes to the people,” Majumdar said in a video statement on February 23.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold another rally in the first week of March in Barasat, a subdivision in North 24 Parganas district and next to Sandeshkhali village, where alleged atrocities against women have been committed by TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides, a party source said. Meanwhile, villagers from the Bermajur area of Sandeshkhali clashed with the Police on February 23 as they tried to prevent police vehicles from passing through the area.
“We did not stop them initially. We just wanted to talk to them about why they were detaining our boys without any charge. They did not listen. The police vehicle ran over a woman’s feet. We want to talk to them,” a woman protester said, speaking to the media.
“Is there any law and order in this country? Police tried to run over a girl. If the public had not known, the girl would have died,” another protester said, speaking to the media.
“Sheikh Shahjahan, Sirajuddin have confiscated all our plots of land. We were protesting. Police forcefully drove through protesters. One of the protesters broke their leg in the process,” another protester said.
“The people who are being looted, Police are committing atrocities against them. This is the truth of Bengal. Nobody is safe here…We are being stopped from going there because they don’t want the truth to come out. Women here are trying to speak to us but Police are scaring them away,” West Bengal BJP Mahila Morcha President Falguni Patra said, speaking to the media.
Meanwhile, South Bengal Additional Director General Supratim Sarkar and Deputy Inspector General of Barasat Range, Bhaskar Mukherjee, reached the spot with their team to pacify the villagers.
“We are saying this in pain. Why are they (Shah Jahan Sheikh’s aides) breaking into our houses? They are threatening my in-laws. Why are they doing this?” an aggrieved woman protester said as the Police tried to pacify the situation.
While the Police reasoned that they were taking steps to solve the situation, she said, “You are coming now. Where were you earlier?”
The women protestors in Sandeshkhali are seeking justice against alleged atrocities committed by TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides. A large number of women in Sandeshkhali had accused Trinamool Congress strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of “land-grab and sexually assaulting” them under coercion. Shahjahan continues to evade arrest, with both State police and central agencies unable to trace him.
Recently, the Calcutta High Court instructed a collaborative Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and West Bengal Police to investigate an assault on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Sandeshkhali.
Determined to secure the maximum number of seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of 370-plus for the party and ‘400 paar’ (beyond 400) for the NDA, the BJP has set sights on ‘GYAN’ to bring home the desired electoral harvest.
A term coined by PM Modi himself, ‘GYAN’ refers to ‘Garib’ (poor), Yuva (youth), Annadata (farmers), and Nari (women).
Earlier, in a rousing address to cadres at the party’s national headquarters in Delhi after it swept the heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, PM Modi listed poor, youth, farmers and women as the only four castes in the country as he underlined his welfare pledge going into the general elections.
On how the party plans to carry forward its outreach towards ‘GYAN’, a top BJP source told ANI on Thursday that the party was focusing on the upliftment of all four sections of the country’s population.
Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP national president JP Nadda will hit the ground running and campaign extensively as part of efforts to reach out to these four sections.
(with inputs from ANI)
