While allegations of atrocities on women in Sandeshkhali have dominated the election campaign of the BJP in West Bengal, in the State’s Malda district, a BJP candidate is promising empowerment of women.
Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury, the BJP contestant from Malda Dakshin, has earned the moniker ‘Nirbhoy Didi’ for the campaign ‘Nirbhoy Gram (villages free of free)’ she launched in Malda in 2012. The BJP candidate says even her name on the EVM and ballot paper has ‘Nirbhoy Didi’.
Her campaign in Malda, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have held rallies, features pink vehicles that appeal to women to vote in her favour.
“Unless there is a political change in West Bengal there cannot be any social transformation and the condition of women won’t change,” she says, referring to the Sandeshkhali incident. Women in Sandeshkhali have alleged sexual assault and torture allegedly by Trinamool Congress leaders of the area.
Ms. Mitra Chowdhury contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Malda Dakshin and lost to Congress candidate Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury by a narrow margin of about 8,000 votes. In 2021, she was elected to West Bengal Assembly from the Englishbazar seat in 2021.
In this election, she is pitted against Congress’ Isha Khan Chowdhury and Trinamool’s Shanawaj Ali Rehan. The BJP MLA, who is the only woman candidate fielded by the BJP in north Bengal, says women from Malda Dakshin are among the most marginalised in the State. The BJP has fielded five women candidates across 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State; the other four are contesting from constituencies in south Bengal. The Trinamool has fielded 12 women candidates.
Women voters in West Bengal have sided with the Trinamool particularly because of the sway Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holds over them and the cash incentive schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar targeted towards women.
Asked whether her appeal will sway Muslim women in the constituency, she said her goal is empowerment of women, irrespective of the community from which they belong.
Ms. Mitra Chowdhury says the Constituency she is representing has a porous border with Bangladesh and is a hub of crude bombs, illegal weapons and fakes notes. “There is river erosion for which there has been no compensation. We need to bring in new technology to arrest erosion,” she says.
Majority of voters of the Malda Dakshin constituency are Muslims and a split in the minority vote between the Trinamool and the Congress is expected to help the BJP. The party also hopes to win over a section of women voters from the community.
Ms. Mitra Chowdhury said women do not have any access to justice and suffer like the survivors in Sandeshkhali. “When I campaign amidst women, I tell them that their vote can provide them safety and security,” the BJP candidate said.
