BJP will put Mamata in jail if it comes to power, says Suvendu Adhikari in Sandeshkhali

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will set up a commission to probe atrocities committed in Sandeshkhali and send Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to jail if the party comes to power in West Bengal, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday.

“You (Banerjee) have asked the people to forget whatever has happened. The people of Sandeshkhali will not forget. Even I will not forget. If BJP comes to power in West Bengal, a commission would be set up to probe into the Sandeshkhali events. You had framed women of Sandeshkhali and sent them to jail. BJP will send you to jail too for lodging false cases against women,” said Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly.

“We will take revenge with interest according to the law and stay within the limits of the Constitution,” said Adhikari, who travelled to Sandeshkhali a day after the chief minister visited the area in North 24 Parganas district.

Adhikari, who was addressing a BJP outreach programme in Sandeshkhali, accused Banerjee of conspiring to slap false cases against women in the area ahead of the 2024 elections to punish people for protesting against local TMC strongmen such as Shahjahan Sheikh.

The BJP leader’s offensive against Banerjee comes a day after she asked people in the area to “let bygones be bygones”. It was her first visit to the riverine island since violent protests broke out in February 2024 over allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing by a section of TMC leaders.

“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. Let bygones be bygones. I do not want to keep these things in mind,” Banerjee said on Monday.

The BJP tried to make the Sandeshkhali a key poll plank against the TMC, especially in the Basirhat constituency, in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections this summer. The TMC, in turn, had alleged that Adhikari hatched the “conspiracy” and “paid women” to frame local TMC leaders on sexual assault charges to defame Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The TMC won the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, of which Sandeshkhali is an assembly segment.

Adhikari later told media persons on the sidelines of the rally that people were tortured by Banerjee’s goons and the state police. “We will make Banerjee the former chief minister and send her to jail,” he said.

The TMC, however, said the BJP won’t come to power in West Bengal any time soon.

“The BJP will not come to power in the next 100 years in West Bengal… One need not pay tax on saying anything and that’s why he is saying all rubbish. These statements have no political meaning. We have been hearing for the past three to four years that the BJP would come to power in West Bengal. In reality, their seats are going down,” Jay Prakash Majumdar, TMC state vice president and spokesperson told reporters.