NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister
Mamata Banerjee
accused the BJP of scripting the Sandeshkhali incident and questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the allegations of sexual molestation by governor C V Ananda Bose.
Speaking at an election rally in Chakdah in Nadia district, Mamata said, “The entire Sandeshkhali incident was preplanned.
The BJP had scripted it well. The truth has been exposed. I have been saying this for a long time,”
Further attacking PM Modi over silence on sexual harassment allegations against
West Bengal governor
, “PM Modi gave sandesh (messages) regarding Sandeshkhali, but remained silent on the representative of the Centre, the Governor’s sexual molestation issue,” she said. This comes after the Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose faced molestation accusations from a Raj Bhavan employee after he allegedly made inappropriate advances and discouraged her from reporting the incidents.
The
TMC
accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to defame West Bengal’s image by releasing a video suggesting that the BJP fabricated the evidence and testimonies in the Sandeshkhali case.
In the video, a man claiming to be a BJP mandal president alleged that the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, instructed BJP leaders to incite local women to accuse three TMC leaders, including Shajahan Sheikh, of rape.
The authenticity of the video remains unverified.
The TMC further released a post titled ‘Big expose on Sandeshkhali,’ accusing Adhikari of fabricating a narrative of mass rapes and planting guns in a house in Sandeshkhali to defame Bengal.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee said that he was ‘shocked’ over the Sandeshkhali sting video and condemned the BJP’s attempt to defame and malign West Bengal. He described the BJP’s actions as “gross abuse of power and a matter of shame”.
In response, BJP spokesperson Shankudeb Panda dismissed the allegations, accusing the TMC of insulting women in Sandeshkhali and Bengal. He claimed that the TMC resorted to releasing a doctored video due to its inability to address public anger over the Sandeshkhali incident.
(With agency inputs)
