If everything goes well, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to come to the city on Mahalaya day. On that day, he is supposed to inaugurate the Puja of Santosh Mitra Square, one of the famous Pujas of the city.

One of the leaders of that puja is BJP leader and councilor of Ward No. 50 of Kolkata Municipality Sajal Ghosh. It may be noted that Sajal Ghosh was a member of the Trinamool before joining the BJP. Sajal’s father Pradeep Ghosh was also a prominent Congress leader at one time.

Santosh Mitra Square this time will highlight the central government’s program ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mohotsav’ on the occasion of 75 years of independence.

In 2020, Amit Shah came to Calcutta once to celebrate Puja. That time he inaugurated a Puja of Salt Lake BJ Block. At that time, however, the political environment was completely different. The BJP won 18 out of 42 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. At that time one after another Trinamool leader was leaving the party and raising the lotus flag.

Hence, the BJP wanted to share Trinamool’s unequivocal ‘dominance’ in Durga Puja-centric public relations. But they were not very successful in that work. However, there was quite an uproar among the BJP workers-supporters over the inauguration of Amit Shah’s puja. The slogan ‘Jai Sri Ram’ was raised in front of him. Along with the Union Home Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh were seen along with currentbTrinamool leaders Mukul Roy and Sabyasachi Dutta.

While Amit Shah returns to Kolkata to inaugurate Durga Puja after three years, the political landscape has changed a lot. Despite desperate efforts in 2021, the state BJP’s ‘Bengal victory’ remains elusive. At that time, Shah himself came to the state many times and demanded to win 200 seats by stimulating the party workers, but the BJP had to stop at the limit of 75 seats.

Mukul Roy and Sabyasachi Dutt, who were seen at the puja inauguration with Shah three years ago, have returned to Trinamool. In this atmosphere, Shah is going to come again to inaugurate the puja. According to state BJP sources, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath may also come to Kolkata to inaugurate the puja. He may attend a puja inauguration in Salt Lake. This time the theme of the puja is Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir. However, according to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s Secretariat, nothing is known about this.

There had been a tussle within the state BJP for some days to bring Shah to the inauguration of the puja in Kolkata. Formal application forms were also sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs as per the rules. The state BJP claimed that Shah’s ministry had given verbal consent to the matter.

Incidentally, in the last few days, the discomfort of the ruling party in the state has increased on several issues, including recruitment corruption. Former state minister Partha Chattopadhyay and Trinamool’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal are in jail.

In this context, BJP wants to increase the pressure on the ruling party of the state. Recently, UNESCO recognized Kolkata’s Durga Puja as a ‘current cultural heritage’. Even over the achievement of that recognition, there is a tug-of-war between the BJP-ruled central government and the Trinamool-ruled state government.

State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already done a colorful rally in Kolkata thanking UNESCO. A section of the opposition, including the BJP, alleged that the Chief Minister was taking all the publicity and credit for Durga Puja. This time, the state BJP is going to retaliate by bringing a ‘heavyweight’ like Shah to the Puja Maidan.