‘Countdown to BJP’s political funeral has already begun...’

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday welcomed the stand taken by the Durga Puja organisers in Delhi, rejecting the “fatwa” issued by Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to keep Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s picture in Puja pandals.

Asserting this as a trailer of the 2026 Assembly elections in Bengal, the ruling party in the state said that a “party (BJP) that insults our language, persecutes our people, and dares to desecrate our goddess has signed its own death warrant in Bengal”. Trinamool also said that the BJP’s PR attempt failed. In a press statement, Trinamool said: “Organisers refused to bow, publicly rejecting this grotesque attempt to turn worship into a PR fair. What BJP thought would be a triumph has become a humiliation, a spectacle of arrogance collapsing under its own weight.” The countdown to BJP’s political funeral has already begun and the people of Bengal will give a befitting reply to the BJP in 2026 polls.

Slamming BJP’s PM Modi photo demand in pandals, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh slammed the saffron party. “Look at Delhi, the BJP is being forced to go on the back foot. The Chief Minister of Delhi issued a fatwa that pictures of PM Narendra Modi must be kept in all Durga Puja pandals. But every Puja committee in Delhi has rejected this application. Why should such pictures be kept inside the puja pandals?”

Ghosh further pointed out: “This same Narendra Modi and the BJP leaders earlier used to say that Durga Puja does not happen in Bengal.

They opposed the financial support that CM Mamata Banerjee gives to Puja committees. And now the same BJP brigade is doing drama around Puja! Why should Narendra Modi’s picture be kept near the idol of Goddess Durga?”

“I bow to all the Puja committees of Delhi who have rejected this diktat because Puja must remain independent. It cannot be misused to impose Narendra Modi or BJP. Somewhere they force PM Modi’s biography in centrally controlled schools, somewhere they change the name of cricket stadiums to a name of Narendra Modi, they erase old names of the Central schemes and replace them with new ones,” he added.

Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose said: “This is an insult to the faith of millions for whom Durga Puja is a moment of celebration and devotion to Maa Durga. And the Durga Puja Pandal is a place where the presence of Maa Durga is of utmost importance to the devotees. Why should a political leader’s photograph be placed alongside Maa Durga? This is not just brazen politicization of Durga Puja by the BJP.”