BJP Leader's Dramatic Entry into Sandeshkhali Amidst Political Turmoil

In this area of turmoil, politics has swept in with vigor, and there are no indications that it will be leaving anytime soon.

On Tuesday, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari entered Sandeshkhali with much fanfare and promised the locals he would back them. He was armed with an order from the Calcutta High Court that lifted the obstacles caused by the Bengal government's implementation of Section 144.


Adhikari had attempted to reach Sandeshkhali on February 12 and 15, but was prevented by a large police deployment at Dhamakhali on the opposite side of the Kalindi river. On Tuesday morning, Adhikari had again reached the North 24-Parganas island, which is 80 km from Calcutta. For more over an hour, the BJP delegation—which included party MLAs Shankar Ghosh and Agnimitra Paul—was stranded in Dhamakhali.

Suvendu was permitted to visit Sandeshkhali, which has been under fire since February 7, by a high court division bench led by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam in Calcutta as the police and the BJP delegation got into a heated altercation. The BJP leaders traveled to Sandeshkhali via motorized boat.

"We weren't distracted from our goal, which was to reach Sandeshkhali," Adhikari said.

Adhikari said, "Today we could reach Sandeshkhali following the historic verdict by the division bench of the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court." He was greeted with a resounding greeting upon arriving in Sandeshkhali, particularly by ladies who showered him with flowers and tied rakhi on his wrist. The people who stopped us unlawfully were the Mamata (Banerjee) police, notwithstanding my prior efforts. To make sure you're secure, I'll return here and be with you.

The leaders of the BJP visited Sandeshkhali for almost three hours.

The Opposition leader blew conch shells to greet the around 300 people who had gathered at the ferry ghat, saying, "I assure you that peace will return to Sandeshkhali."

As previously mentioned, Adhikari set off for Sandeshkhali from Calcutta at approximately 9.30 am, but his convoy came up against a police blockade close to Dhamakhali. at order to keep him from entering the region, the district government had clamped down on Section 144 at 12 locations around Sandeshkhali, including the four ferry ghats that link the two towns with Dhamakhali.

The police gave in when the court issued its ruling, which was announced around midday, and Adhikari arrived at Sandeshkhali at 1:30 p.m.

The isolated island in North 24-Parganas, which is part of the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency, made headlines on January 5 when a team from the Enforcement Directorate was ambushed by about 300 armed individuals, who were purportedly supporters of Sheikh Shahjahan, a local Trinamul leader, when the central agency had gone there to raid his residence in relation to the PDS scam.

Since then, a large number of Sandeshkhali locals have come forward to report crimes against humanity, from sexual assault to land grabs, carried out by close aides of Shahjahan, Trinamul officials like Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, with covert police help.

Sardar was a member of the zilla parishad and Hazra was the president of the Sandeshkhali-II block.

Upon arriving at Sandeshkhali, Adhikari launched a fierce assault on the Mamata government, claiming that the governing party was providing sanctuary to several criminals, including Shahjahan. "I promise that Shahjahan will be taken into custody. You must fight as a team. Interacting with at least fifty ladies, Adhikari said, "I will come here again."

70-year-old villager Haren Giri said, "We were all Trinamul supporters, but we got fed up with the local leaders, who inflicted so much atrocities on us." Haren Giri was waiting to see Adhikari on a roadside. Adhikari had been attempting to get in touch with us ever since we began our protests against the horrors in Trinamul, so we were anxiously awaiting his arrival. We put our trust in him because we knew he will stand out for our rights.

Numerous locals echoed Giri and the ladies who met Adhikari when this reporter strolled around various portions of Sandeshkhali, including Kalyani Para, Patra Para, and 8 No. Majher Para, and chatted with them.

"Whatever the BJP has been saying about Sandeshkhali is not right," said Sukumar Mahato, the Trinamul MLA for Sandeshkhali. They have some support on the island in a few areas, and they are using their political power to incite their followers to oppose our party. But because our party has taken action against misbehaving leaders, we wholeheartedly support the villagers."

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.