Protest fury on the streets of Calcutta will not stop Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee from her annual ritual of pandal-hopping and inaugurations of Durga Pujas, beginning from Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday is Mahalaya, which is when Bengal usually gets into Durga Puja mode in full swing. This year, however, along with the early morning invocation of the deity, there will be protests over the rape and murder of the young trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mamata will be at state emergency services minister Sujit Bose’s famed Durga Puja at Sreebhumi Sporting Club off VIP Road, the main thoroughfare connecting Calcutta’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.

The chief minister had the option of picking at least 14 Durga Pujas from her home turf, South Calcutta, including Chetla Agrani patronised by minister and Calcutta mayor Firhad ‘Bobby’ Hakim, who is counted among Mamata’s inner circle, and state power minister Aroop Biswas’s Suruchi Sangha Durga Puja, also close to Mamata’s home.

Instead, Mamata chose the pandal farthest from her home turf.

“While both Aroop and Bobby remain close to Didi, there are internal reasons why she decided to stick with Sujit’s Puja,” said a Trinamul insider. “All three are close to Didi, with varying degrees of proximity. Right now, Sujit is the least controversial among the three.”

The Enforcement Directorate had raided Sujit Bose’s residence in connection with the alleged civic body recruitment scam. That was in January this year.

That Trinamul general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Mamata’s trusted Hakim and Biswas don’t exactly see eye to eye is one of Trinamul’s least-guarded secrets.

Just last week an employee of Abhishek – who is also Mamata’s nephew besides being Trinamul general secretary – had lodged an FIR against Kalicharan Banerjee, Hakim’s officer-on-special duty (OSD) at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

In the FIR filed at the Shakespeare Sarani police station, Hakim’s OSD was accused of dropping Abhishek’s name to extort money. Hakim dismissed the charges as baseless and wondered aloud in public why Abhishek approached the cops and not him.

Hakim had expressed his displeasure over the move by Abhishek’s office to the chief minister and wanted to step down as mayor, Trinamul sources said.

“For the time being Didi has managed to keep him pacified,” said a senior Trinamul leader.

On the other hand, the party’s general secretary, too, is unhappy that the Kolkata Police are yet to take any action against the accused despite the complaint from his office.

The Biswas brothers Aroop and Swaroop, who had started as the party’s liaison men with the Bengali film and television industry and have transformed into the ones calling the shots in those industries, have been a cause for embarrassment for Mamata in the recent past.

The state power minister Aroop’s younger brother, Swaroop, is president of the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India.

The federation under the young Biswas sibling with the backing of the elder brother and minister Biswas controls all aspects of filmmaking, specially hiring of technicians. Those opposed to the Biswas brothers and the ruling party have allegedly often found it difficult to get work.

While the street protests against the RG Kar rape-murder was on, a hairdresser allegedly on suspension since this May made a public ‘self-immolation’ attempt after being allegedly denied work. In a note, the hairdresser reportedly named 11 members of a “guild of hairdressers” for her ordeal.

“The hairdressers’ guild is not a legal body. But under the able guidance of Swaroop Biswas, who is the head of federation, the decision-makers can keep hairdressers suspended and out of work until they deem fit. Until the jobless workers can attempt to kill themselves,” wrote actor Swastika Mukherjee on her Facebook account the day the incident happened.

Mukherjee’s upcoming film ‘Tekka’, co-starring Trinamul’s Ghatal MP Dev who is also one of the producers of the movie, has allegedly been targeted for her participation in the protests.

How much should be read into Mamata’s choice of Pujas to inaugurate on the first day? Officials close to the chief minister said she might visit the other pandals patronised by Trinamul leaders including Hakim and Biswas on a later date.

A Trinamul leader pointed out that Mamata was quick to change her favourites and rebuke them in public. “Last year during a meeting with Puja organisers she had scolded Sujit publicly,” the Trinamul leader pointed out.

The story goes that one of Mamata’s nieces once had to spend over two hours to reach Ultadanga crossing from the airport, stuck in a jam near Sreebhumi.

Last year, Mamata had said: “Sab cheye dushtumi korey Sujit Bose [Sujit Bose does the most mischief]. He does it [Durga Puja] in such a manner that people can’t come from the airport. This time, I will tell police to ensure that the [traffic around the] airport is not disturbed. Sujit, you will have to see to it while organising the puja. The transport system must remain functional. I’ll block you if the transport is blocked.”

Right now, Sujit Bose is unblocked.