Trinamool team to visit Madhya Pradesh, BJP says political gimmick

A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threatened to send her MPs on fact-finding missions to BJP-ruled states, the Trinamool Congress Monday announced that five of its parliamentarians would head to Madhya Pradesh where a tribal woman was gang raped.

The Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the move and dubbed it a "political gimmick".

Irked over the BJP sending central party delegations to assess the law and order situation in her state, Banerjee Sunday declared a "tit-for-tat" approach and said she would "send a Trinamool team to the BJP-ruled states whenever there is any issue there".

A five-member Trinamool delegation comprising Rajya Sabha members S.S. Roy and Nadimul Haque and Lok Sabha members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh and Uma Soren will head to Khandwa, where a 30-year-old woman was gang raped and paraded naked.

Confirming the move, Dastidar said the schedule of the visit will be finalised soon.

"A decision has been taken about the visit, the schedule is being finalised," Dastidar told IANS.

Expected to leave shortly, the team will submit a detailed report about the incident to Banerjee, also the party supremo.

The horrific incident happened earlier in the month when a group of men, including the woman's estranged husband, raped her in front of her minor son, paraded her naked and even forced her to drink urine.

Criticising Banerjee over the move, BJP leader and party co-in-charge for West Bengal Siddharth Nath Singh described it as a political gimmick.

"As a chief minister, she is supposed to act, but unfortunately she is reacting. When her job is to solve the issues of law and order back home, she is resorting to political gimmickry by sending delegation to another state as a retaliatory move."

"It would be better if she tries to look into her state and solve the problems faced by it rather than interfering in other state's working," Singh told IANS.