Durga Puja politics: BJP faces test in dismantling TMC’s festival grip

As West Bengal prepares for its first Durga Puja under a BJP government this October, the party is looking to convert its electoral victory into cultural dominance by entering a festival ecosystem long controlled by the Trinamool Congress.

For more than a decade, many of Kolkata’s biggest and most influential Durga Puja committees remained closely associated with powerful TMC leaders who built extensive local networks around the festival.

Even before the TMC came to power in 2011, several of its leaders were known for organising grand community pujas that blended religion, local influence and political outreach.

Once in government, those networks expanded rapidly through state patronage, corporate sponsorships and administrative support.

Much more than a religious celebration

Today, some of Bengal’s best-known pujas are identified as much with political personalities as with religious celebration.

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For instance, Sreebhumi Sporting Club became synonymous with former minister Sujit Bose. Chetla Agrani became closely associated with Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim. Suruchi Sangha came to be identified with another TMC heavyweight and former minister, Arup Biswas. Bhowanipur 75 Palli became widely associated with Mamata Banerjee’s brother Kartik Banerjee.

Several other major pujas across Kolkata and the districts developed similar political identities linked to TMC councillors, MPs and ministers.

Local clubs organising Durga Puja often doubled as neighbourhood welfare centres, election campaign hubs and channels for distributing patronage. Annual state grants introduced and expanded under former chief minister Mamata Banerjee strengthened those networks further.

The BJP is now seeking to expand its influence within that political structure.

Even Left was not immune to Puja fervour

The party, during its election campaign, promised to dismantle what it described as TMC’s patronage-based club culture.

But after assuming office, it has realised that Durga Puja in Bengal is not merely a religious festival. It is also one of the state’s most important systems of informal political organisation.

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The Left Front, which had ruled the state for 34 years before the TMC, largely stayed away from directly controlling puja committees. But the CPI(M) and other Left parties still used Durga Puja crowds for ideological and literary outreach through temporary book stalls set up near major pandals across Kolkata and the districts.

The stalls, many draped in the Left’s trademark red banners, became a familiar part of Bengal’s Puja landscape and were used to sell Marxist literature, political journals and communist writings.

BJP’s failure to make Puja inroads

Ever since emerging as a major political force in the state after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP has tried to build a stronger presence within Durga Puja committees to counter the TMC’s dominance over Bengal’s biggest cultural festival.

But despite repeated outreach efforts, the party achieved only limited success in Kolkata’s elite Puja circuit.

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In 2020, the saffron party even organised its own Durga Puja at Salt Lake’s Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre in an attempt to project a more culturally rooted Bengali identity ahead of the assembly election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the puja. Yet, except for BJP leader and MLA Sajal Ghosh, who is associated with Santosh Mitra Square Durga Puja, few senior BJP leaders could develop strong links with Kolkata’s marquee puja committees.

Political realignment of puja committees

Now, after the party’s rise to power, signs of political realignment are already visible within influential puja committees.

Many of Kolkata’s biggest pujas functioned almost as extensions of the state’s ruling establishment during the TMC regime. Mamata Banerjee personally inaugurated several marquee pujas every year, sometimes visiting dozens of pandals over a few days.

But in the changed political situation, many puja committees are now trying to establish links with the BJP leadership.

BJP sources said several committees have already begun reaching out to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and other senior party leaders for this year’s inaugurations.

According to the sources, some organisers are also keen to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in an attempt to align themselves with the new political establishment.

The question of livelihoods

One such committee is Tala Prottoy, one of north Kolkata’s most prominent pujas. Organiser Shantanu Ghosh said Durga Puja was linked not only to faith and culture but also to livelihoods, and therefore, required continued support from the government irrespective of which party was in power.

In several puja committees and clubs, office bearers seen as close to the former regime are quietly stepping aside, while figures aligned with the new dispensation are taking charge ahead of the festive season.

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Internal elections are reportedly being held in some committees after many years. An organiser of a prominent Kolkata puja remarked privately that the people who once controlled the committees were no longer the ones taking calls. “The equations have changed,” he said.

Anxiety over government grants

The uncertainty has also fuelled anxiety over whether the BJP government will continue the financial support provided by the Mamata Banerjee administration.

The state’s over 45,000 puja committees had been receiving direct government grants of Rs 1.10 lakh. Many also received additional prize money, government advertisements and concessions such as 80 per cent electricity rebate and full waiver of fire licence fees.

The BJP government has so far not clarified whether it will continue the annual grants.

Organisers of major pujas said large-scale celebrations had become difficult without state assistance because Durga puja now sustained a massive seasonal economy involving artisans, decorators, electricians, transport workers and small traders.

A test for BJP

Debasish Kumar of Tridhara Sammilani said community pujas had evolved into a major economic activity and expressed hope that government support would continue under the new administration.

The shift became particularly striking because many influential organisers had openly backed the TMC during the election campaign. Many committees circulated slogans such as “Ei Bangla Durgar (Bengal belongs to Durga)” on social media and some organisers were seen campaigning for the then ruling party.

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But after the change in government, such posts disappeared as organisers moved quickly to welcome the new political dispensation.

“The challenge for the BJP will be to weaken the TMC’s influence over puja committees without affecting the large economy linked to the annual festival,” said Anasua Roy Chowdhury, a retired professor who writes and comments on Bengali culture and heritage.

Cautious BJP leaders

Even BJP leaders now appear cautious about directly confronting Kolkata’s entrenched Puja establishment.

Sajal Ghosh, the BJP MLA associated with Santosh Mitra Square, said organisers linked to the TMC should conduct pujas “without fear”. But he also maintained that Durga Puja should not become a mechanism for “making money”, in an apparent dig at the patronage networks that grew around several high-profile pujas during the TMC years.

“For the BJP, the more practical strategy may be gradual appropriation rather than disruption,” said political commentator Amal Sarkar.

Recent administrative decisions by the new government, including greater emphasis on national symbols and rollback of some TMC-era branding, have already fuelled speculation that future pujas may increasingly feature themes linked to Hindu civilisation, nationalism and historical icons favoured by the BJP.

Clay crisis

Meanwhile, the BJP government is facing an immediate challenge in addressing growing concerns among Kumartuli idol makers, who say restrictions on lifting clay from riverbanks and traditional sources have triggered an acute shortage ahead of the puja season.

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The Kumartuli Mritshilpi Sanskritik Samiti, an association of idol makers, recently wrote to Adhikari seeking immediate intervention, cautioning that the shortage could severely affect idol production.

The association said the crisis was not merely a cultural issue but also a major economic concern because thousands of families depend on the annual idol-making industry.

Some craftsmen warned that delays in securing adequate clay supplies could affect timely completion of idols for major pujas in Kolkata and other districts.

Besides the shortage, artisans said clay prices had also risen sharply in recent weeks, increasing production costs for already financially strained workshops.

The crisis has become an early test for the BJP government’s handling of the festival economy.