With Shahjahan Sheikh in CBI custody, Sandeshkhali hopes for ‘fair poll’

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Sandeshkhali, May 6

The office of e-rickshaw drivers’ union at Sandeshkhali displays a huge banner of TMC’s Basirhat candidate Haji Nurul Islam even as young men sitting inside the office talk openly about voting for “Modi”.

“We never got a chance to vote. If we ever went out to vote, we were told by Shahjahan Sheikh’s men that our votes had already been cast. Hopefully, this time we will be able to cast vote on our own,” says a driver. The charge is reiterated by Bharat Singha who runs a tea stall.

“We did not go out to vote in 2019. But our votes were cast anyway. Even if a person was able to cast vote, he would be subjected to questioning and in case of doubt, he would get a severe beating,” says a primary schoolteacher.

With suspended TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh now in CBI custody, the locals are hoping to vote freely at last. “Some of Sheikh’s aides are still around. But they can’t stop us,” says Singha’s wife Anita.

She is proud of the key role women played in building resistance against Shahjahan’s reign of terror. Shahjahan and his gang, who allegedly had the blessings of the TMC government, illegally possessed other people’s land and set up fisheries without permission from owners or giving them any money for using their land. The women, after enduring torture for years, finally raised their voice. Rekha Patra, BJP candidate from Basirhat, is a product of protests by women against Shahjahan.

Talking to the The Tribune, Rekha said as an MP, her priority would be to restore to original owners the land taken forcibly by Shahjahan. “I will also make sure women of the area do not face any threat in future,” she said.

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