Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted a lot of money was in the play to level the allegations of gangrape in Sandeshkhali, where massive protests broke out against erstwhile Trinamool Congress local strongman Sheikh Shahjahan months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Mamata asserted this at a public event during her visit to Sandeshkhali since the conclusion of the Lok Sabha polls.

The chief minister said, "Remain united. Do not fall in the trap of notorious people. I would request women to not blindly trust anyone. I am aware that a lot of money was spent here but everyone saw it was all lies. Lies do not last for long. The truth ultimately comes out."

"But I moved on. I only want women and men from Sandeshkhali to achieve excellence," she added.

Just ahead of the federal elections, several women accused Shahjahan, who was later arrested, and his aides of summoning them to local party offices and sexually assaulting them in Sandeshkhali, an island in North 24 Parganas.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) picked Rekha Patra, one of the women who protested against Shahjahan, as its candidate from the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency where Sandeshkhali is located.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the de facto chief campaigner of the BJP, had even dialled Patra to talk to her during the elections.

However, Mamata's TMC registered a massive victory in Muslim-dominated Basirhat though the BJP managed a lead of 8,000 votes in the Sandeshkhali assembly constituency.

In the middle of the protests, the TMC had released a sting video where a man- who is assumed to be BJP's mandal president Gangadhar Koyal- claimed people had followed Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari's instructions.

"We have followed Suvendu Da's (Bengal Leader of Opposition) instructions. We convinced the Trinamool people to do all this. Adhikari told us that if we could not do this, we would not be able to stand here," the man was heard saying in the video as quoted by Mint. 

In the course of her meeting, the TMC supremo also highlighted that no one would have to pay for the government schemes, obliquely referring to the cut-money allegations against the ruling party.

"You don't have to pay anyone to avail the state government schemes. The government is crediting the money into the bank accounts of individuals directly. Do not pay even if someone asks for it," Mamata said.