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Mamata’s Vatican trip is the toast of this year’s Durga Puja
Trinamool Congress leaders, who are involved in organising pujas, feel that highlighting Mother’s canonisation will see healthy footfalls at puja
For a change, Durga Puja pandals across the state would cash in on a new theme. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s visit to the Vatican City would feature in several pandals this year.
The ruling party leaders, who are involved in organising pujas, said the idea behind the move is to draw maximum number of crowds to their pujas.
“We will show the pictures of this historic moment in our puja pandals,” said state education minister Partha Chatterjee.
On Sunday, Mother Teresa was made a saint after 19 years of her death. Nobel laureate Mother served the poor and the sick on the streets of Kolkata. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others went to witness the event in the Vatican City.
“This year, several puja organisers in our district have decided to make Singur as their puja theme and undoubtedly the moments of Banerjee’s visit to the Vatican is a special occasion for us. We will collect the pictures of those moments and hang them in the puja pandals,” said Jyotipriyo Mullick, the state food and supplies minister and the president of North 24 parganas Trinamool Congress.
Read: Mother Teresa canonisation: Expats in Italy happy to see India in limelight
After Supreme Court verdict went in favour of the the farmers, many puja committees across the state decided to make the Singur as the theme of their pujas. Alongside, pictures of CM’s Vatican trip would give these pandals an added attraction, said the puja organizers.
Not only in the city and urban suburbs, the Trinamool leaders of rural areas, involved in puja committees, are also following the same. In Hooghly, most of the puja organisers would showcase the photos of agitation days of their party chief in Singur and her moments in Vatican City. State agricultural marketing minister and Hooghly district party president Tapan Dasgupta said not only in pandals during the Durga Puja, these momentous moments would also be shown in Jagaddhatri Puja at Chandernagore.
“We follow the lifestyle of our chief minister and think that photographs of her struggling days in Singur and special moments in Vatican City will add more attraction to our puja pandals,” said Nikhil Chakraborty, the president of Serampore-Uttarpara block Trinamool Congress committee.
