HM Amit Shah likely to visit Kolkata on Friday to inaugurate 3 Durga Pujas

Kolkata, Sep 22 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to visit Kolkata on Friday (September 26) to inaugurate three community Durga Puja pandals in the city on the same day.

A state committee member of the BJP said that two of the three Puja committees that will be inaugurated by the Union Home Minister on Friday are final.

The first one is the community Durga Puja organised by “Paschim Banga Sangskritik Manch" (West Bengal Cultural Forum), which receives the direct backing of the West Bengal unit of the BJP.

This Puja was started in 2020 that is the year before the crucial West Bengal assembly elections next year. In the first year, this Puja was inaugurated virtually from Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The second community Durga Puja, state BJP insiders said, that the Union Home Minister will be inaugurating on Friday, will be that of Santosh Mitra Square Community Durga Puja at Lebutala Park in North Kolkata, whose principal organizer is BJP councillor in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Sajal Ghosh.

Santosh Mitra Square Community Durga Puja is always known for its innovative themes, with the theme this year being “Operation Sindoor,” the strike through which the Indian Armed Forces demolished several terror bases both in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir earlier this year.

Last year, the theme of Santosh Mitra Square Community Durga Puja was Ram Temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

Sajal Ghosh was the first community Durga Puja organiser to refuse the annual Durga Puja dole offered by the state government, a practice which he is still continuing with.

Later, many of the other community Puja organisers followed his example.

However, the state unit of the BJP is maintaining total secrecy over the third community Durga Puja pandal that Amit Shah will be inaugurating on Friday.

The information on this count that has surfaced so far is that the said Puja will be in South Kolkata and within or adjacent to the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, from where the elected legislator is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

As per the schedule, HM Shah will arrive in Kolkata on Friday morning and go back to Delhi the same evening after inaugurating the three Pujas.

--IANS

src/pgh