Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced an April date for the inauguration of a Rs 250-crore Jagannath temple in Digha, triggering a battle over temple politics with BJP leaders accusing her of imitating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to construct the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“I had decided to set up a Jagannath temple on the seashore of Digha in 2019 but it could not start until 2022 because of COVID. After three years, the work has been nearly completed and it will be inaugurated on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya (April 30, 2025),” the chief minister, who was assisted by Iskcon Calcutta vice-president Radharaman Das, after inspecting the last phase of the construction work, said.

However, the decision to inaugurate the temple a year before the crucial 2026 Assembly polls has opened a war of words between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress with Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari saying that the one in Digha was not a temple but a “cultural centre”.

“That is not a true Jagannath temple. One should know that temples, mosques, or gurudwaras cannot be constructed using government funds. Its proper name is Sri Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre. Puri Dham is one of the four sacred Dhams, and attempting to imitate it will not be accepted by Hindus,” Adhikari said.

Claiming that the chief minister’s temple move was an attempt to “copy Modi”, who he claimed had facilitated the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“The Ram Temple was constructed with contributions from Hindus, without using even a single penny from the government exchequer, and we also contributed to that effort. I will bring Daitapati Ji and organise Dharma Sabhas across the district to expose the hypocrisy of Mamata Banerjee,” Adhikari said.

The chief minister, however, refused to be drawn into any controversy and refrained from making any comment on Adhikari’s claims.

“That (the Puri temple) one dates back to the era of kings but this temple, different and unique, has been built by the government. This will be a tourist destination for a thousand years to come,” she said.

The chief minister, who announced that she would donate Rs 5 lakh from her personal account for the temple’s ceremonial golden broom used to sweep the chariots of the deities (Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and Goddess Subhadra), also kept herself away from the trustee board.

Announcing the composition of the board, the chief minister said that people of the administration and religious personalities would be members. Despite the chief minister distancing herself from the temple’s daily affairs and facilitating the appointment of a trustee board for the purpose, the Trinamool Congress is keen to use the temple card to strengthen its influence in East Midnapore, where it won nine out of 16 Assembly seats in the 2021 polls.

Considered to be Adhikari’s backyard, the BJP had secured seven seats in 2021 but managed to win both Lok Sabha seats from East Midnapore earlier this year. A Trinamool leader said to breach Adhikari’s domain, all local and grassroots leaders of the party have been asked to campaign extensively across the district to exploit thetemple issue.

BJP insiders feel that by announcing the inauguration of the Jagannath temple, Mamata had blunted the saffron ecosystem’s allegation that Trinamool Congress won because of the backing of the minorities and cared little for the state’smajority community.

“Suvendu-da’s attack on the temple issue is understandable as Mamata’s announcement comes at a time when our party is raking up the incidents of atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh to effect a polarisation of majority community voters towards us before the crucial 2026 Assembly election,” a leader of the BJP’s statecommittee said.

Echoing the BJP leader, a political expert said that the BJP was trying to put the TMC on the mat over its stand on the Waqf Bill and the Bangladesh issue but Mamata’s recent moves inside and outside the Assembly seems to have hit the saffron camp hard.

“The Trinamool Congress is strongly voicing its protest against the Waqf Bill and this allowed BJP to accuse Mamata Banerjee of being pro-Muslim. But the BJP suffered its first blow when the chief minister in the Assembly condemned attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and even dropped the idea of a UN intervention in the neighbouring country. Didi’s announcement of an inaugural date for the Jagannath temple in Digha seems to have dealt the BJP a bigger blow as the saffron party was aiming to breach our vote bank through religious polarisation before the next Assembly polls,” a senior TMCleader said.

While the BJP finds itself on a difficult political turf after Wednesday, the Left has criticised the chief minister for indulging in divisive religious politicsto garner votes

“The Jagannath temple in Digha cannot be compared to the one in Puri. The chief minister can use it for tourism and help TMC workers earn some money. But the fact remains that by involving the government to construct the temple, she is promoting divisive politics,” CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said.