Kolkata, Sep 25 (PTI) West Bengal's BJP unit has turned Durga Puja into its newest political weapon, blending faith, spectacle and strategy to counter the TMC's "anti-Bengali" charge and script a cultural counter-offensive ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

From dispatching over a hundred leaders to other states to woo diaspora Bengalis, to reviving its once showpiece puja at Salt Lake’s Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, scaling up bookstalls across pandals and rolling out prize-rich contests for organisers, the saffron party is seeking to stitch itself into Bengal’s cultural fabric, reframe its identity and challenge the TMC's monopoly over "Bangali asmita" (Bengali pride).

Party strategists describe the move as symbolism fused with strategy — marrying religion with identity politics to blunt Mamata Banerjee's long-running narrative that the BJP is an "outsider" force in Bengal.

"Durga Puja is not just devotion but about pride and belonging. If we can be part of that identity, half the battle is already won. The TMC wants to paint us anti-Bengal, whereas the biggest disservice to Bengal and Bengalis has been done by the TMC," a senior state BJP leader said.

In what leaders describe as their "largest festive connect ever," nearly 107 Bengal BJP functionaries have been deputed to 22 states and Union Territories this season under the programme 'Durgapuja Bangali Milan Samaroh.' State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya will be in Gujarat, his predecessor and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar in Varanasi and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari in Tripura. Other leaders have been dispatched to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Dehradun, Chennai, Ranchi, and even the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

"This is a part of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' initiative, where people from various states meet the diaspora of their state living in other parts of the country. During this Puja, leaders from the state have either already started visiting or have already visited various parts of the country. The BJP doesn't need lessons on Bengali culture and identity from the TMC," Bhattacharya told PTI.

Party strategists believe such outreach, though not directly linked to votes, will have a ripple effect..

Migrant Bengalis may not cast ballots in Bengal, but their families and networks back home do, and word-of-mouth travels fast during elections.

The campaign is designed to neutralise Mamata Banerjee's persistent charge that the saffron camp is hostile to Bengali identity.

From barbs about leaders' diction to allegations of Hindi-Hindutva imposition and episodes of Bengali workers being profiled as "Bangladeshis" in BJP-ruled states, the TMC has projected the saffron party as culturally tone-deaf.

The BJP is attempting to flip that script.

"We have got firsthand accounts of how peacefully Bengalis in Mumbai or Delhi are celebrating Durga Puja. Rather, those residing there are laughing at TMC's false narrative that Bengalis are facing harassment in other states," state BJP spokesperson Keya Ghosh said.

Central to this repositioning is the return of the BJP's Durga Puja at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) in Salt Lake, once the party's cultural showpiece.

First organised in 2020, the EZCC puja gained prominence when Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated it, symbolising the party's attempt to merge Bengali identity with its Hindutva plank.

But after the 2021 election setback, enthusiasm waned, and by 2022, it was wrapped up. A scaled-down version at Aikatan followed in 2023, but by last year, there was no attempt.

Now, the Durga Puja is back at EZCC, this time organised by Paschim Banga Sanskriti Mancha, a BJP-backed initiative, rather than the cultural cell directly.

BJP's cultural cell convenor Rudranil Ghosh, who is also part of Sanskriti Mancha, insists the initiative is rooted in community bonding, not political theatre.

"It is less about direct politics and more about creating space for art, literature and adda among our people," he said.

TMC leaders, however, dismiss the effort as "desperate optics", which won't yield results.

Once dismissing bookstalls at pandals as a Leftist relic, the BJP now sees them as indispensable tools of cultural and political outreach.

Historically dominated by the Left and later embraced by the TMC, Durga Puja bookstalls are now being aggressively tapped by the BJP.

From 8,000 stalls last year, the party has targeted 36,000 this season, at least six in every mandal, with major pandals hosting 10.

The curated content is diverse — books on India's civilisational heritage, the Ram temple movement, infiltration and demographic change, need for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, GST reforms, and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

In Balurghat, Majumdar has launched the Sangsad Sharad Samman and a Shobhayatra Protijogita with prize money up to Rs 3 lakh for immersion tableaux.

The BJP is ensuring heavy ministerial presence at Bengal's leading pujas.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to inaugurate pandals, including Santosh Mitra Square and the EZCC Pujas.

Adhikari is likely to inaugurate around 120 Durga Pujas across the state, while Bhattacharya and other leaders have a string of invitations lined up.

The TMC, which once controlled nearly 95 per cent of all Puja committees since coming to power in 2011, has ceded some ground to the BJP in recent years, but its dominance, backed by senior ministers' direct involvement in major pujas, remains unmatched. PTI PNT MNB