Trinamool Congress to host 'Khela Hobe Diwas' in 13-14 states on August 16

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress will organise 'Khela Hobe Diwas' in 14 states across the country, including Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat on August 16. This comes when the party chairperson Mamata Banerjee stated that the "game will remain on (khela hobe)" in different states till the BJP is ousted from the Centre.

Senior TMC leader and state Youth Services and Sports minister Aroop Biswas said: "So far, we have received information that Khela Hobe Diwas would be observed in 13 to 14 states. It includes Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala."

Banerjee had announced August 16 to be observed as 'Khela Hobe Diwas' every year in the state expressing her gratitude towards the people of Bengal who had extended their full support and appreciated the 'Khela Hobe' (game on) slogan helping Trinamool Congress achieve a landslide victory winning 213 seats in the Assembly polls.

The 'Khela Hobe' slogan has already reached Parliament and it has also been adopted by the Samajwadi Party (SP) workers creating a Bhojpuri version — "Khela Hoi" — popular in Uttar Pradesh.

The state Youth Services and Sports department has also taken a series of initiatives to observe "Khela Hobe Diwas". Area-specific games are getting organised at 942 points, including 343 blocks, 117 municipalities, 23 district headquarters, all 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and 309 IFA affiliated clubs.

The most significant event of the day is a football match between the Indian team and that of Bengal that is going to be held at 5.30 pm at Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan on August 16. The match will be played following all Covid protocols. Though there will be no spectators, only senior players will be invited as special guests.

It is important to remember that as many as 16 spectators had died during a stampede at Eden Gardens on August 16, 1980. The trouble ensued after the referee showed a red card to Mohun Bagan's defender Dilip Palit. Wordy duel ensued between supporters of the city's two football giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The police resorted to lathi-charge in the gallery to bring the situation under control while the spectators started running helter-skelter resulting in the stampede. The "Football Premi Diwas" too would be observed at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.