Mamata Banerjee on Thursday exulted over the Unesco recognition to Calcutta’s Durga Puja, staking claim to credit for initiatives her government took to bring global attention to the festival, jeering at the BJP’s top leadership over their propaganda for years over the alleged resistance to the festival under her regime.

A day after the BJP-led Centre went to town, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah taking to Twitter to celebrate the achievement, the Bengal chief minister suggested the latest feather in the state’s cap was enough for her to win a major election.

“I think the vote (to Calcutta Municipal Corporation) should take place on this achievement alone. It is now my regret that this (recognition) did not happen before the Assembly election,” said Mamata at a Trinamul campaign rally in Behala in the evening, promising special celebrations next year during Durga Puja to commemorate the Unesco recognition.

On Wednesday, Unesco announced the city’s Durga Puja is now inscribed on its “Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”, a tag that formally takes the city’s much-loved carnival to the global stage.

“Durga Puja is seen as the best instance of the public performance of religion and art, and as a thriving ground for collaborative artists and designers. The festival is characterised by large-scale installations and pavilions in urban areas as well as by traditional Bengali drumming and veneration of the goddess. During the event the divides of class, religion and ethnicities collapse as crowds of spectators walk around to admire the installations,” the Unesco website reads.

On Thursday, Mamata repeatedly mocked the saffron camp for falling back on its hackneyed weapons of majoritarian appeasement and communal polarisation every time elections come, weapons decisively rejected by the historic Bengal mandate this summer.

Then she twisted the knife, mocking Modi, Shah, BJP chief J.P. Nadda without taking their names for the saffron ecosystem’s narrative of obstacles on the path of Durga Puja allegedly placed by her government to appease minorities.

“I have to take certificates from this lot? ‘Mamataji Durga Puja nahi karney deti hain (Mamata does not allow Durga Puja; apparently mimicking Modi).’ Your faces are smeared with chunkali (lime and ink, colloquial Bengali for public shaming),” said a visibly jubilant Mamata, to thunderous applause from the audience.

The BJP has long been seeking to milk a notification issued in 2017 by the Bengal government that suspended the immersion of Durga idols on September 30 and October 1 on account of Muharram, observed by Muslims as a day of mourning.

The decision, driven by goodwill and an eagerness to minimise potential flashpoints because both events involve processions, has been amplified by the Right-wing ecosystem as an example of “appeasement”.

“‘Mamataji’, you can abuse, can you do that to Unesco? Tell us. Go now, ask them (Unesco)....We delivered and our work spoke for us. You only lied… only lied. You lie, and we let our work speak for itself,” Mamata said.

Modi, Shah and Nadda, besides countless others in their party, kept raking up the Durga Puja charge in campaign for the Assembly election this summer. Many BJP leaders believed that polarising voters along religious lines is their best bet in Bengal. Some continue doing so, apparently unable to digest the fact that Hindus stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Muslims to slam the door shut on Hindutva and its flag-bearers.

“From Kanyashree to Sabuj Sathi, many of our initiatives earned global recognition in the past. But with what we got yesterday, my heart is filled with joy. Our Bengal is the best in the world…. As I say this, I am getting goosebumps, you must also be getting them. I had been trying for this since 2016. We conceptualised the Durga Puja carnival. We have been assisting puja organisers with Rs 50,000 each, with which they do a lot of work… including for the poor,” said the chief minister.

Even BJP leaders concede in private that the scale and scope of celebrations during Durga Puja have grown exponentially under Trinamul rule with the active patronage of the ruling party. The Mamata government has been giving Rs 50,000 each to 37,000-odd community pujas to help them stay on course, despite a pandemic-induced funds crunch.

“So full of colours, our Durga Puja, so full of rhythm, so vibrant, so full of culture. This is what we had tried to show (the world).

Our Durga Puja is now being lauded around the world. The entire world! The entire world! The entire world! There is nothing more that I need to say,” said Mamata, at the close of campaign for Sunday’s civic polls in the city.