PM Modi will virtually inaugurate a pandal that BJP has installed in Salt Lake in Kolkata.
Calcutta:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata via video conference today as the five-day celebrations begin in West Bengal amid the pandemic.
The BJP claims to have made elaborate arrangements for the live visualization of the virtual address of PM Modi to the population. Television screens have been installed in all 78,000 electoral areas of the state.
The prime minister will virtually inaugurate a pandal that the BJP has installed in Salt Lake in Kolkata at a cultural center run by the central government’s Ministry of Culture.
The Prime Minister tweeted last night about his participation in the 10 a.m. festivities. He will probably give his speech at noon.
Sisters and brothers from West Bengal,
Tomorrow, on the auspicious Maashashti day of Maa Durga Pujo, I will join the divine celebrations by video conference and I will also convey my greetings to all.
Join the program live!
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 21, 2020
Several big names are likely to present cultural performances in the two hours preceding the speech, including dancer Dona Ganguly, wife of BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly.
Today is maha shashti, the first of five days of worshiping Goddess Durga.
Durga Puja is intrinsic to Bengali society and represents a huge opportunity for public awareness. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated nearly 200 pujas and over a dozen in person in the city of Kolkata.
The BJP also wants to make the most of it, and political analysts are already reading between the lines about the prime minister’s participation in Bengal’s biggest festival ahead of the assembly elections.
“He has been prime minister for many years. Why is he addressing Bengal for the first time in this year’s Durga Pujas? Is it because the elections are approaching,” asked a Trinamool Congress.
Last year, when Amit Shah came to inaugurate a Durga Puja at BJ Block in Salt Lake, BJP claims that members of the puja host committee were harassed and threatened by “Trinamool morons”.
The BJP claims it didn’t want to create any problems for the puja committees that wanted to host the Prime Minister, so it created their own pandal.
West Bengal is due to hold Assembly polls in the first half of next year.
