Unlike before the Covid-19 pandemic, the race between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP to score political mileage during this Durga Puja in West Bengal may not happen as the saffron party has decided to keep it a low-key affair owing to the outbreak.
Since BJP’s ascent to power in 2014 to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, and then its aggressive campaign in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, the saffron party had been intensifying its outreach programmes in West Bengal during the festive season, especially the Durga Puja.
After its massive win in the 2019 General Elections, BJP leaders ahead of the state assembly polls early this year had requested PM Narendra Modi to greet people virtually during Durga Puja on ‘Shashthi’ on October 22, 2020. Though this gave significant mileage to the BJP but it could not defeat the Trinamool Congress.
During ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’, ‘Durga Puja’, ‘Kali Puja’, ‘Eid al-Fitr’ or ‘Raksha Bandhan’, leaders from political parties in the past had tried to gain control over puja committees and organisers as these religious platforms help them reach out to masses. In fact, this also helps them retain their dominance in their respective turf to polarise the voters.
As Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has more dominance in the Durga Puja committees, the BJP had also found an opportunity to promote Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi besides Durga Puja to impress on their presence among the masses.
Over the years, as the enthusiasm of the BJP to fill in the ‘religious vacuum’ grew, so did the number of Ganesh Chaturthi pandals. There are more than 1,800 in 2021 as compared to about 1,200 pandals in 2016.
BJP state vice-president Pratap Banerjee told News18.com, “This year we are keeping the Durga Puja festival a low affair considering the pandemic situation. Our party workers, leaders, ‘mahila morcha’ workers will be associated with the several puja committees but as of now there won’t be any inaugural events by our prominent leaders because this could lead to violation of Covid-19 rules.”
“Last year, there was a demand from people that PM Narendra Modi should greet the people on ‘Shashthi’ (during Durga Puja) and it was organised accordingly so that people across Bengal could listen to him. This year, I have no information regarding such an event,” he added.
When asked why every year during festival seasons political parties intensify their outreach programmes with a political motive, Banerjee said, “BJP don’t politicise festive seasons. Like Trinamool Congress, we don’t do politics keeping Durga Puja in front. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has openly announced donations to Durga Puja committees to get hold of the organisers. Don’t you think she is doing politics here in the name of Durga Puja.”
He, however, said there will be book counters, medical assistant booths and water ATMs at a few Puja pandals.
More than 25,000 Durga Puja are held across West Bengal with about 2,000 of them being organised in Kolkata alone. Organisers of most puja committees are divided on political lines, a trend that was non-existent before the TMC came to power in 2011 defeating the Left Front that had ruled the state for 34 years.
State minister and patron of Ekdalia Evergreen Puja Committee in Gariahat in South Kolkata, Subrata Mukherjee said, “BJP believes in the politicisation of Durga Puja and this was evident in their political campaigns in Bengal. This is the reason they were rejected by the masses and they decided to take the side of the TMC.”
Mukherjee said, “As far as donations to the puja club committees are concerned, it is an administrative step because puja subscription was less due to the pandemic situation. It is the responsibility of the state chief minister to stand beside the puja organisers irrespective of their different political inclinations. Puja is for all and it is not about TMC, BJP, Congress or CPIM.”
On BJP’s plan during the Durga Puja festive season, BJP leader Tushar Kanti Ghosh, who was in charge of the party’s puja related co-ordination in Bengal in 2019, said, “The BJP has gained a lot of strength and popularity in Bengal and therefore, several Durga puja organisers are in touch with us. We are also associated with several pujas as it is a social festival. But this year we are not going for inaugural events considering the Covid-19 situation.”
“For the last one month we have been receiving various calls from Puja Committees for inaugurations of pandals but we told them that this year it is not possible due to the pandemic,” he added.
In the last two years, state BJP had received more than 200 inaugural requests for Ganesh Puja and Durga Puja where some of the senior party leaders such as Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh, Arvind Menon visited the pandals and inaugurated the puja.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said he usually doesn’t respond to media queries on every matter as they have a party spokesperson for the said job.
BJP spokesperson, Shamik Bhattacharya, however, said, “As of now, we don’t have any such mentionable events during Durga Puja. We will inform the media if anything is finalised in the coming days.”
TMC heavyweights such as MLA Sujit Bose, sports minister Aroop Biswas, panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim are closely associated with some of the biggest Durga Puja clubs in Kolkata. Although the Puja clubs will follow Covid-19 protocols, but there will be celebrations.
Recently, there was a standoff between Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari and the ruling TMC after the district administration in West Bengal’s Contai in East Midnapore district denied a Durga Puja Committee to hold Puja where he is the sitting president.
Then the Puja Committee members filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court on August 26 against the state administration for denying permission to hold the Puja at an Irrigation Division’s field in Contai.
It was learnt that Adhikari is the president of the Chowringhee Recreation Club and he has been organising Durga Puja since 2007. Last week, the Calcutta High Court gave an order in favour of the Chowringhee Recreation Club and this year Adhikari is planning to celebrate it in a big way.
Former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh too said he made a “personal decision” to inaugurate some Puja pandals in Midnapore and in Kolkata.
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