Sandeshkhali, the name reverberated through the country before and during the Lok Sabha Polls of 2024. From row over women safety, complaints on land acquisition and central probe agency being attacked, the sub-urban area in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal kept the nation hooked.
Trinamool Congress’s leader Shahjahan Sheikh was at the heart of all the accusations, whose premises the Enforcement Directorate went to probe in connection with the public distribution scam in the state.
The attack on a team of ED officials in Sandeshkhali on January 5 gave a fillip to the issue, turning it into a national agenda, the echo of which could be heard till date.
While the general elections were continuing, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet and submitted it to the court on May 27 regarding the attack on the ED officers.
A scoop from the charge sheet suggests that the attack on a team of ED officials in Sandeshkhali on January 5 was orchestrated by local strongman Sheikh Shahjahan to prevent them from stumbling upon a cache of both legal and illegal arms stored in his Akunjpara house.
In the charge sheet submitted to the court regarding the attack on the ED officers, the CBI also meantioned Shahjahan’s brother Sheikh Alamgir had subsequently shifted the arms to the house of Abu Taleb Sheikh, an aide to the former Sandeshkhali strongman.
“During subsequent investigation CBI recovered a huge cache of arms, both licensed and unlicensed, along with ID cards and gun licences from the house of one of Sheikh Shahjahan’s close associates namely Abu Taleb Sheikh. These firearms were kept at the residence of Abu Taleb by Sk Alamgir, brother of prime accused Shahjahan Seikh,” the charge sheet states.
Senior officers said call-detail records of Alamgir and Shahjahan and other evidence suggested that the two were in touch when the ED team reached Sandeshkhali to raid Shahjahan’s residence.
The development has again shifted Sandeshkhali to the limelight, which comes under Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. The seat went to the polls in the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections.
The manner in which the Sandeshkhali issue was backfiring the ruling TMC, it was expected that the Bharatiya Janata Party would gain ground. However, the result was in favour of the TMC.
As it is said that the grass is not always green on the other side. The vote percentage of the TMC decreased from the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls in Basirhat.
This year, the TMC garnered 52.76 per cent votes, which is less than what they fetched in 2019.
Lok Sabha elections of 2019 brought 54.9 per cent votes in the TMC’s kitty.
The data also shows that the BJP, though raked the Sandeshkhali issue to its full potential, could not bring in any difference in the votes percentage from 2019 Lok Sabha Polls.
In 2024, the saffron party gained 30.87 per cent votes which is almost similar to what it gained in 2019, that is, 30.3 per cent.
In terms of the votes percentage, if the figures do not favour the BJP then the stakes isn’t much high for the TMC too— a note of which, one assumes, is taken by the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
While campaigning for the Lok Sabha Polls, CM Banerjee, who has been shamed for not paying a single visit to Sandeshkhali, said that she would go there only if the TMC candidate wins in Basirhat.
Sk Nurul Islam has won, but CM Banerjee — it has been 10 days since the Lok Sabha Polls results came out — has not taken a trip to Sandeshkhali.
Assembly elections are due in nearly 2 years in the state and one hopes that the TMC supremo will plug all the loopholes in an attempt to secure fourth term as the chief minister.
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