Mamata Banerjee has asked Trinamul leaders to ensure Puja celebrations are not politicised, the directive assuming significance at a time the BJP is drawing up elaborate plans to use the festival to further its agenda in Bengal.

“There should not be any Trinamul banners and flexes in any puja pandals this festive season. It should not look like a particular puja belongs to a certain Trinamul leader,” the Trinamul chief was quoted as saying at a closed-door meeting on Monday with senior party leaders, MPs and district presidents.

The chief minister has asked leaders not to go on vacation during Puja and use the festival to boost contact with the masses.

Mamata did not name anyone in the meeting but several big-ticket pujas in Calcutta have been known to be linked to Trinamul leaders. The list includes Partha Chatterjee (Naktala Udayan Sangha), Firhad Hakim (Chetla Agrani Sangha), Aroop Biswas (Suruchi Sangha), Subrata Mukherjee (Ekdalia Evergreen), Sujit Bose (Sreebhumi Sporting), Atin Ghosh (Hatibagan Nabin Pally) and Debashis Kumar (Tridhara Sammelani).

Trinamul sources said the instruction to delink politics from puja was based on feedback from several quarters. “She (Mamata) has asked in the recent past why a puja should be regarded as some leader’s puja?” said a source.

According to the source, Mamata had recently warned some senior party leaders, who organise pujas, that the residents should not be inconvenienced in any way. “If roads are closed for days, it creates a negative impact,” Mamata had told a senior party leader, asking him not to barricade roads because of his puja.

While Trinamul leaders have been asked to maintain a safe distance from the pujas, the Bengal unit of the BJP has been drawing up big plans for the festival.

Sources in the BJP said leaders have been asked to associate themselves with the pujas and make the party’s presence felt.

Locket Chatterjee, the party MP from Hooghly, has announced several initiatives that the women’s wing of the party will undertake in the Puja season. “It is the biggest festival in Bengal and we will surely associate ourselves with it,” said Chatterjee.

BJP sources said state president Dilip Ghosh has decided to inaugurate and visit as many pujas as possible. Some senior party leaders from Delhi are also expected in Calcutta around that time.

A Trinamul leader associated with a puja for years said the diktat to keep politics off was easier said than done. “If we see BJP leaders are using Puja for their political gains, there is bound to be some reaction from our side.”