Mamata Banerjee started her annual puja inaugurations with four big-ticket pujas on Friday and is likely to continue the spree till Mahapanchami on October 3, unveiling around 70 pujas in and around Calcutta amid a resurgent BJP’s plans to tap the festival to enhance its mass connect.
The chief minister, who has been closely associated with the festival and has been inaugurating dozens of pujas every year since her stint as railway minister in the UPA-II government, started the inaugurations with Calcutta deputy mayor Atin Ghosh’s Hatibagan Sarbojonin on Friday, a day before Mahalaya. Last year, she had started the same day, with fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose’s Sreebhumi Sporting Club.
This time, top BJP leaders such as national president and Union home minister Amit Shah, and working president J.P. Nadda are coming to Bengal, with the party trying to seize every opportunity to utilise the festival to boost its outreach.
Against such a backdrop, the Trinamul chief’s decision to inaugurate around 70 big-ticket pujas this time — picked from over 10,000 invites — is being deemed significant. She will sign off with Kalighat’s Milan Sangha, with which her family is closely associated.
The number of inaugurations has been steadily increasing over the years: in 2011, right after she came to power, she inaugurated 24. The figure was 60-odd last year.
“We are doing this a little differently this year given that it is still Pitrupaksha (Debipaksha, when the goddess is traditionally worshipped in Bengal, begins the day after Mahalaya). We will not light lamps, only pay our respect to the goddess,” Mamata said at Hatibagan.
On Saturday, she will unveil party mouthpiece Jago Bangla’s Puja number and inaugurate five big south Calcutta pujas.
Last year, she had chanted mantras and lit ceremonial lamps at pandals the day before Mahalaya, prompting criticism from the saffron camp over alleged violation of ritualistic norms and disregard for the religion.
Sources said although Mamata is not one to change her ways because of criticism from rivals, the general election setback has apparently prompted some subtle adjustments and this was one such instance. The BJP, pushing its Hindutva-driven agenda, won an unprecedented 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats and secured leads in 121 of the 294 Assembly segments in the general election this year.
“I believe in all religions…. I respect and obey traditions and norms of our religion, everything,” she said on Friday.
Initially, the BJP tried to get a foothold in a puja organised by the Sanghasree Club near Mamata’s home so that it could be inaugurated by a senior BJP leader to send the message that the party has started penetrating Trinamul strongholds. But Trinamul leaders ensured the puja kept out anybody associated with the BJP.
