Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will visit the Kalighat temple, offer puja at the shrine and then lead an interfaith harmony rally with representatives from various communities on January 22, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will helm the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“I will offer prayers at the Kalighat temple on January 22.... I will go there alone. From there, I will lead an integration march (from 4pm) with representatives of all faiths from the Hazra crossing to the Park Circus Maidan. There, we will conduct a (public) meeting,” Mamata told a news conference at state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday.

She said the Trinamul Congress’s district units would organise similar harmony rallies in all 341 blocks of the state from 3pm on January 22.

“Starting with the touch of Ma Kali, we will go past temples, mosques, gurdwaras, churches, with people of all religions, I will conduct that rally as chairperson of the Trinamul Congress. Well-wishers, the common people, everyone is welcome,” Mamata added.

Mamata, who didn’t mention the Ram temple, Modi or the BJP ecosystem, took care to explain that the January 22 programme is aimed at fostering peace and amity between faiths and also stressed that it is neither a protest nor a counter-event.

The Bengal chief minister’s announcement came exactly a week after her first unambiguous public response to the scheduled Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22, underscoring the universality of festivals, criticising division between communities, and asserting that it was being done “for a gimmick show” ahead of the general election.

Despite her emphasis on her harmony march having nothing to do with the Pran Pratishtha event at Ayodhya, she appeared to be making a point when she said such ceremonies and the conduct of rituals therein, were not the job of the government, but of priests and clerics.

“You (journalists) have been asking me repeatedly about various temples. I have nothing to say about it. I say repeatedly, religion is personal, festivals are universal,” she said, before announcing her plans for the march and the meeting.

Asked if it was merely coincidental that it was taking place on January 22, the Trinamul chief said: “Please, I am saying this categorically… please, I am not conducting any counter-event. I am not protesting.”

Mamata, Trinamul sources said, is wary of the propaganda overdrive being planned by the saffron ecosystem before the Lok Sabha elections by bringing the temple to the centre stage, sweeping the “real, pro-people” issues under the carpet.

“On this matter, I have but one comment: religion is personal, festivals are universal. I am doing this for the sake of amity between all faiths, because the next day is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary,” Mamata said.

However, during her media interaction, Mamata did bring up the Pran Pratishtha while highlighting some of the many infrastructure upgrades undertaken by her government in Bengal for numerous places of religious significance for all faiths.

“It is not our job to carry out Pran Pratistha. It is the job of priests... clerics,” she said. “Our job is to create infrastructure,” the chief minister said.

Mamata also highlighted what the “shadhu-shonto (ascetics- monks)” have been saying, an apparent reference to the criticism by three of the four Shankaracharyas of the move to carry out the consecration of an unfinished temple.

“I obey the shadhu-shonto, I have been listening to the shadhu-shonto, what they have been saying,” Mamata said.

On January 9, the Trinamul chief had said: “You are doing it (consecration) for a gimmick show ahead of the election. I have no objection…. But neglecting people of other communities cannot be somebody’s job.”

Mamata has evidently been trying to steer clear of controversy by directly criticising the Ayodhya event, while trying to send out a message to the minorities — who form a crucial third of the Bengal electorate and whose support plays a decisive role in any electoral result in the state. She has been underscoring the pluralist, inclusive ethos of her politics and policies since her ascent to power, and taking to task the hackneyed yet fearsome weapon of choice of the saffron ecosystem — that of reaping political dividends through polarisation and the vilification and otherisation of Muslims and others in the minority.

“We had been anxiously awaiting something like this, and now everyone in the wider Trinamul family will get the clarity they need for combating the saffron propaganda juggernaut from January 22,” a Trinamul MP said, referring to Mamata’s decisions.

“Monday will essentially be the launch of our campaign for the general election as well, enabling us to finally dive headlong into ensuring thumping victories in as many of the 42 (Lok Sabha seats in the state) as possible,” he added.