Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed BJP’s Basirhat candidate Rekha Patra, calling her a ‘Shakti Swaroopa’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to Rekha Patra, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Basirhat. She is one of the victims of Sandeshkhali assault, allegedly perpetrated by jailed former Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan. PM Modi asked Patra about her Basirhat campaign and support for BJP. She also narrated the ordeal of Sandeshkhali victims. “You fought a big battle in Sandeshkhali, you are a Shakti Swaroopa. You sent such powerful people to jail. You have pulled off a very courageous act,” the prime minister said in the telephonic conversation with Patra. Shakti is a Hinduism term associated with goddesses like Durga and Kali. Patra replied,”I could do it because of the support from women. I will follow the path shown by them and will take everyone along.” The prime minister assured full support to the BJP candidate. “Raising the voice of the women of Sandeshkhali is not a common thing. Your courage shows that the Nari Shakti in Bengal will bless us. I urge you to inform people about the works done by the Centre. The people are fed up by the TMC government in Bengal, which does not let the implementation of central schemes in the state,” the prime minister told Patra. Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas, hogged limelight when a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials that had gone there for a probe in the ration scam, got attacked by supporters of local TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan. Last month, hundreds of women staged protests accusing Shahjahan and his aides of land grabbing and sexual assault in Sandeshkhali. As the protests intensified, the TMC suspended Shahjahan from the party for six years. After evading police for two months, he was arrested on February 29. Later, Shahjahan was handed over to the CBI following a Calcutta high court order.
