BJP seeks to improve ‘anti-Bengali’ image through inaugurations, TMC calls it ‘hypocrisy’

Kolkata: With few months left for Lok Sabha elections, Bengal’s Durga Puja seems to have become a platform which the top rung BJP leaders want to utilise to reverse their “outsider” and “anti-Bengali” image by a series of Puja inaugurations while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is looking to utilise the same to accuse the saffron brigade of “hypocrisy”.

Political observers are of the opinion that in Bengal nothing stays apolitical. The occasion of Puja too seems to have been dragged into the vortex of politics as parties look to improve upon their connection with the people by utilising the festival days for mass reach-out events. Recently, the Union Home minister Amit Shah visited Kolkata to inaugurate the Santosh Mitra Square Puja which is patronised by BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh. It was learnt that BJP leader and Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari had convinced Shah to grace the event.

Presently, it is learnt that BJP’s national president JP Nadda would be in the city on the day of Saptami where he would be visiting at least three Pujas. He is scheduled to visit a Puja in Howrah’s Belilious Road. He will then visit Sovabazar Rajbari and then to New Market Sarbojanin Puja. He is scheduled to fly back to Delhi on the same day.

Sources say that this may be an attempt by the saffron brigade to change the “anti-Bengali” image that is said to have led to seat losses in 2021 Bengal Assembly elections. The ruling party in the state, TMC had also categorically remarked in their campaigns that the BJP are “outsiders” and cannot understand the culture of Bengalis. This again became apparent after Shah’s recent visit when the TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee remarked: “Those who once attacked the rich cultural heritage of West Bengal by claiming that there is no freedom to celebrate Durga Puja in the state, are coming to the state to inaugurate a community Puja.”

A TMC leader said that such visits by BJP leaders will not change the perception of people in Bengal who are well aware how the Modi-led Union government is allegedly depriving the poor of their wages through fund blockade. “Such hypocritical stunts will not yield fruit in election results. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP will be washed away,” the leader claimed.