E-Paper
Books to become political weapons at Bengal’s Durga puja pandals
The battle between the rivals is getting intense at Bengal’s Durga puja pandals in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls
Kolkata: Six years after the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) helped its mouthpiece, Bharatiya Janavarta, set up its first stall at the Kolkata International Book Fair in 2019 to compete the mouthpieces of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and and the CPI(M), the battle between the rivals is getting intense at Bengal’s Durga puja pandals in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls.
As TMC chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee focused on suspension of Central funds for her welfare schemes and detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in some BJP-ruled states while inaugurating pujas days ahead of the festival, preparations to send her message further were on at the office of Jago Bangla, her party’s mouthpiece.
“This is Bengal’s biggest festival. Hence, our agitations will be kept on hold. We have asked our boys to set up book stalls outside puja pandals in every district,” Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Bengal’s parliamentary affairs minister and the Jago Bangla editor, told HT.
“Mamata has written more than a hundred books over the years. We have published a festive number this year as well. In addition, various books on current issues will be sold from these stalls,” Chattopadhyay added.
While organisations associated with BJP are gearing up to set up stalls in Kolkata and the districts, the party is also more active this year.
“BJP used to set up book stalls in Bengal even when it didn’t have a single MLA. This is nothing new for us. Mamata Banerjee increased the state’s grant for community puja committees from ₹85,000 each to ₹1.10 lakh this year. We want to see whether TMC can set up stalls outside all 45,000 pandals,” BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chatterjee told HT.
Chatterjee said his party will also distribute pamphlets on the performance of the Narendra Modi government since 2014 and the Citizenship Amendment Act, a raging issue in the election run-up.
“Books on Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will also be on sale,” he added.
Currently reduced to a marginal force and with no legislator in the assembly for the first time since Independence, the CPI(M) is recognised as the pioneer in selling books during Durga puja although Marxists don’t practise religion.
Alongside Ganashakti, the CPI(M) Bengal unit’s mouthpiece, the National Book Agency (NBA), has traditionally played a leading role in selling Marxist literature from makeshift stalls.
“We will set up at least 1,200 stalls this year,” Aniruddha Chakraborty, the NBA director, said.
“We have published a collection of essays by CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim on Marxism as the only alternative for Bengal, a book by Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra and another on the crisis in the state education system,” said Chakraborty.
“Old books by former chief ministers Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are also being reprinted,” he added.
Although heavy rainfall damaged hundreds of puja pandals in Kolkata on Tuesday, preparations for the festival resumed after the water receded.
