BJP delegation to visit violence-hit Sandeshkhali in West Bengal

BJP president J P Nadda has constituted a six-member committee of party MPs, five of them being women, who will on Friday visit West Bengal's Sandeshkhali which has been rocked by protests over allegations of sexual assault of women by TMC supporters. Several women in the region have accused the local Trinamool Congress strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of land-grab and sexually assaulting them under coercion.

Shajahan has been absconding after a mob, allegedly affiliated to him, attacked Enforcement Directorate officials who has gone to search his premises in connection with a corruption case.

Union ministers Pratima Bhoumik, Annapurna Devi, who is the committee's convener, Sunita Duggal, Kavita Patidar, Sangeeta Yadav and Brij Lal, a former Uttar Pradesh DGP, are part of the committee, a statement from the BJP said.


Party sources said they will visit Sandeshkhali on Friday.

The party said the incidents of sexual exploitation and violence against women are heart-rending and alleged the local administrator has been a mute spectator.

"Law and order has collapsed in the entire state," it claimed.

However, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed that false allegations were being made in connection with Sandeshkhali, a place in North 24 Parganas district, and claimed that police and the TMC leadership were taking appropriate steps against anyone accused of atrocities.