BJP Sets Goal of Participating in Over 1,000 Durga Pujas in Bengal

The Bengali districts will host a minimum of 25 Durga Pujas, and the BJP has set a goal of having its leaders participate in over 1,000 Pujas this year.

In anticipation of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP hopes to use Bengal's largest celebration as a platform to engage with the public and challenge the Trinamul Congress's monopoly over Puja arrangements.

"BJP leaders will conduct pujas in several areas under various banners. Approximately one thousand Durga Pujas have already been designated, and our leaders will actively participate in planning the opening ceremonies and cultural festivities. A top BJP leader stated, "They will also use the Puja platform to educate people about the achievements of the Narendra Modi government."

Following Mahalaya, senior BJP leaders—including those from Delhi—will visit the regions to officially open Durga Pujas.

The Bengal BJP has previously looked to Puja to broaden its base of support. The party has held Durga Puja on the EZCC grounds at Salt Lake for the first time in 2020, ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. But the Pujas that the BJP organized stayed low-key events after Trinamul won the election.

Leaders of the BJP in Bengal are keen to ensure they are included in Durga Puja celebrations, especially since Union Home Minister Amit Shah set a 35-seat target for the party in April, when Lok Sabha elections draw closer.

The BJP's desperate attempt to refute Trinamul's claim that the party is made up of outsiders with no ties to Bengali customs and holidays is also responsible for its request for increased participation in this year's Durga Puja.

"Our leaders are busy vacationing, but Trinamul leaders use the Durga Puja platform to stay in touch with the masses." That causes a rift, and since the Lok Sabha elections are this year, we cannot afford it," a state BJP official stated.

But in an era where Trinamul exercises total control over the celebration, the BJP's goal to strengthen its relationship with the Puja is far from easy, particularly since the Mamata Banerjee government began providing funding to about 40,000 Puja committees in 2018.

Each Puja committee received an increase in funding from the government in 2018 from Rs 10,000 to Rs 70,000 this year. All Puja committees that get funds from the government disseminate information regarding showpiece projects managed by the state. Each of these Durga Puja groups is affiliated with local leaders of the Trinamul community.

We were unable to locate Durga Puja committees in many of the locations where we could participate. The local organizers were receiving funding from the state government and were not prepared to include us. At that point, we attempted to participate in pujas that do not have government backing, a BJP official in Raina, East Burdwan, where the party had arranged a puja, stated.

According to a prominent BJP politician, the party's main goal is to include local leaders in Durga Pujas that are already taking place in their communities. On the other hand, the district leaders—where the party was denied access to community pujas—are planning their own pujas.

"This year, the party plans to organize no more than 25 new Pujas throughout the state. According to a leader, "leaders have been organizing their own pujas in many cases."

Birbhum's Suri will host one of these new Pujas. "We are doing the Puja in the vicinity of our district party headquarters under the auspices of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Smarak Puja Committee. Even though our leaders are already involved in thirty more Pujas, we are still organizing it," Dhruba Saha, the chief of the Birbhum BJP, stated.