Politics cannot be kept away from Bengal's biggest festival, Durga Puja, more so when the country's biggest festival — the Lok Sabha elections — are around the corner.
For years, political parties have used the platform of Durga Puja to propagate its ideology and policies to the people through bookstalls. This year, the activities urge is more as the 2024 election is inching closer. The Left parties, including the CPM, have traditionally mostly stayed away from Puja committees but their bookstalls have been synonymous with the festivals since 1952.
The Trinamul Congress has, over the years, also realised the importance of outreach through bookstalls and Bengal's ruling party now has the highest concentration of bookstalls across the state.
For the Bengal BJP, the 2024 general elections are crucial and the party wants to use the Puja as its platform to spread its ideology.
The Telegraph takes a look at the bookstall politics of the three major parties during the festivities.
Party: the CPM
Number of stalls: 720-odd
Where: The party has 150-plus bookstalls in Calcutta proper, another 100-odd in the city's immediate neighbourhood. In the south Bengal districts, most CPM stalls are in South 24-Parganas and Hooghly, followed by Howrah. The largest stalls of the party are in Jadavpur, Baghbazar, and Tollygunge. The Jadavpur bookstall, which was inaugurated by CPM veteran Biman Bose in the presence of actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty on October 18, already sold books worth over Rs 1 lakh by Friday.
Titles: The National Book Agency (CPM's publishing house) has 250-plus of its own titles, besides hundreds of titles from other publications. New titles on the 175 years of the Communist Manifesto, on freedom fighter Ashfaqulla Khan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's translation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (titled Biponno Jahajeyr ek Nabikeyr Golpo), and Biman Bose's Communist Andoloneyr Boroniyodeyr Shomporkey (essays reminiscing on the icons of the Communist movement) are most sought-after, say volunteers at the stalls. Classics of children's literature, by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, Sukumar Ray and Abanindranath Tagore are also sold at these stalls.
Focus: "We have been doing this before anybody else, since 1952. The festival has been synonymous with this concept of our book stalls for generations," said Aniruddha Chakaborty, director and publisher of the agency. "We are focusing on the youth."
Party: The Trinamul Congress
Stalls: 2,000-odd
Where: Though the Trinamul leadership could not give exact details about the district-wise count of the party's bookstalls, a party leader said that the aim was to reach the most number of people. Most of the stalls have been set up by the party's mouthpiece Jago Bangla.
Titles: Books written by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the festive number of Jago Bangla are the main attractions in the Trinamul bookstalls. Trinamul leaders associated with the stalls said that Mamata's new collection of poetry — Kobita — was among the top sellers at its stalls across the state this year.
Focus: Trinamul, this year, has focussed on selling books by Mamata on the party's history of struggle against the erstwhile Left Front government, which includes narratives on the Nandigram and Singur land movements.
Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said: "The party wants to make aware the younger generation of readers about its struggles and the movements led by Mamata Banerjee. That is why we are selling more books on those subjects."
Party: The BJP
Stalls: 1,000-odd
Where: The BJP has fewer stalls in south Bengal compared to north Bengal, generally considered its stronghold.
Titles: Most of the collection of books at the BJP stalls are on Narendra Modi, the history of the BJP and its connection with Bengal, the BJP's narrative and activities and the ideology of the RSS. A BJP leader associated with the stalls said that books on Narendra Modi in Bengali were the most wanted among buyers.
A senior BJP leader in Calcutta said: "The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is high in Bengal and it is reflected in common people wanting to buy books on him."
Focus: The main aim of the saffron camp is to spread its Hindutva ideology in Bengal. This apart, the BJP wants to propagate among the people and its grassroots workers its literature regarding the saffron camp's plans for Bengal.
