Durga Puja Politics
Modi's address, Mamata's dole, inaugurations: Durga Puja mega event for BJP, TMC in poll-bound Bengal
Kolkata/IBNS: Countering the dole politics and inauguration of puja pandals by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not reluctant to hold back to address the Bengali community (mostly) this year as barely few months are left for the eastern state to plunge into a high-octane election mode.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is still the only face the BJP can think of falling back to in registering its maiden electoral victory in West Bengal, will address people of the state at 10 am on Thursday on the occasion of 'Maha Shasthi'.
Though Durga Puja has been toned down this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly after the Calcutta High Court barred visitors from entering pandals, Modi's address will definitely be aimed at reaching out to the Bengali community of the state which has already witnessed gala Ram Navami festivals in the last few years.
"Yes, obviously it is a way by which the BJP is trying to reach the Bengali masses," reacted Saugata Roy, the senior ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and Lok Sabha MP.
The BJP had to get into the task of utilising West Bengal's biggest festival as the saffron party would otherwise have been outplayed by Banerjee who herself and her ministers are completely engaged with the puja in several parts of Kolkata for years now.
Not just the inauguration of some key Durga Puja pandals by the CM in the capital city Kolkata but the TMC government has massively hit the state exchequer by controversially announcing Rs. 50 thousand, more than double that was granted last year, as a dole to around 34 thousand puja committees.
Needless to mention, several TMC senior leaders and state ministers, like Subrata Mukherjee, Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim, Sujit Bose are actively involved in organising pujas in Kolkata.
The TMC government's alleged latest stance in wooing the Hindu community post-Lok Sabha poll debacle has also been resonated in BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda's latest speech.
"For a long time Mamata Banerjee has hurt the Hindu community but now she has realised the mistake. So she is trying to woo all communities," Nadda said in Siliguri on Monday.
Nadda's latest accusation can't be overruled as the TMC has neither curbed the Durga Puja celebrations in view of Covid-19 spread nor supported the Calcutta High Court's latest order which barred the entry of visitors in the Durga Puja pandals in the state.
Reacting to the landmark court order, Saugata Roy told India Blooms, "It is a big setback for the puja organisers. The Covid (Covid-19) scare is there but it is a setback."
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