Kolkata: Referring to the recent video clip which according to her has unravelled the “conspiracy hatched by the saffron party”, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused the BJP of spreading lies about Sandeshkhali and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop shedding “crocodile tears”.
The Trinamool supremo also reiterated that her party would take legal recourse over the advertisement published in a section of regional newspapers on Saturday by the BJP that allegedly bore highly communal overtones.
The TMC on Saturday released a video on social media, in which a man, who claimed to be a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali, was heard saying that Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, was behind the “whole conspiracy” where women were instigated to level allegations of rape against three TMC leaders, including Shajahan Sheikh. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.
Banerjee while addressing an election rally at Labhpur in support of her party’s Bolpur candidate Asit Mal, Banerjee said: “The BJP had plotted a conspiracy and had offered money to some people to tell lies and thus they (the BJP) engineered blatant lies about Sandeshkhali. Did anyone ever imagine that they would stoop so low to spread canards about Sandeshkhali? Don’t dishonour the mothers of Bengal by leveling such heinous allegations. Don’t dare try to disrespect women of the state by offering them money to level false allegations against our party,” Banerjee thundered.
Referring to the advertisement, Banerjee said that the same was doctored only to spread lies. “The BJP is publishing advertisements to spread falsehood and the Election Commission has been mum. The EC has become the BJP’s Commission and is sitting on complaints lodged against the saffron party. If we do not get justice from the poll panel, we will be compelled to take legal action. I have consulted some legal experts in this regard and one of them has told me that this advertisement is contrary to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).”
Banerjee, in connection with the advertisement, accused the Prime Minister and his party of engineering riots and dividing people along religious lines. “We follow Swami Vivekananda’s Hindu religion. And who do you respect? Name the six mother idols that are worshipped by the Hindus? You dare not practice religion with me. I do not want a sermon on religion from someone who is wicked and a dangerous man, a mastermind of causing an atmosphere of terror,” Banerjee asserted.
Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas district had erupted in protests after women accused now-suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates of sexual abuse and land grabbing. He has been arrested and is now in CBI custody.
Banerjee, after her election meeting in Labhpur in Birbhum, took part in a road show in support of her party candidate Kirti Azad under Burdwan-Durgapur Assembly constituency.