PM Modi will virtually inaugurate a pandal that BJP has established in Salt Lake in Kolkata.
Calcutta:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Durga Puja pandalos in Kolkata today via video conference as the five-day celebrations kick off in West Bengal amid the pandemic.
The BJP claims that it has made elaborate arrangements for the live display of PM Modi’s virtual address to the people. Television screens have been placed in all 78,000 voting booth areas throughout the state.
The prime minister will virtually inaugurate a pandal that the BJP has set up 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 joining the festivities at 10 a.m. He is likely to deliver his speech at noon.
Sisters and brothers from West Bengal,
Tomorrow, on the auspicious day of the Maa Durga Pujo Mahashashti, I would join the Divine celebrations via video conference and also extend my greetings to everyone.
Join the live show!
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 21, 2020
Several big names are likely to make cultural performances in the two hours leading up to the speech, including dancer Dona Ganguly, wife of BCCI director Sourav Ganguly.
Today is maha shashti, the first of the five days of worship to Goddess Durga.
Durga Puja is intrinsic to Bengali society and a great opportunity for public outreach. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee opened 200 bids virtually and more than a dozen in person in the city of Calcutta.
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 is prime minister for many years. Why is he addressing Bengal for the first time in this year’s Durga Pujas? Is it because elections are just around the corner,” questioned a Trinamool Congress.
Last year, when Amit Shah came to inaugurate a Durga Puja at the BJ block in Salt Lake, BJP claims that members of the committee hosting the puja were harassed and threatened by ‘Trinamool thugs’.
The BJP claims that they did not want to create problems for the bidding committees that were eager to host the prime minister, so they established their own pandal.
West Bengal is scheduled to hold Assembly elections in the first half of next year.
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