Durga Puja, Bengal nobody’s ‘monopoly’: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Abhishek Banerjee’s remarks

Kolkata: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said that the festival of Durga Puja, Kolkata and West Bengal are nobody’s “monopoly”.

The minister was responding to reporters’ questions on Trinamool’s claims that the BJP leaders were making a beeline for Bengal this festive season with Lok Sabha elections approaching.

Pradhan said that neither the festive occasion nor Kolkata and West Bengal are anybody’s monopoly.

The minister visited a well-known puja venue in central Kolkata, modelled on Ayodhya Ram Mandir.

Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee, speaking at Diamond Harbour on Wednesday, stated that the BJP leaders had earlier claimed that Bengal doesn’t celebrate Durga Puja. “But now they have to come to Bengal to inaugurate Puja pandals and return to Delhi like daily passengers. This is the victory of Bengal’s tradition and Durgotsav,” Banerjee had mentioned.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and three other BJP leaders were in Kolkata on Friday. Besides Pradhan, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha President Tejasvi Surya were the other two leaders who were in the city. Sawant visited Shri Bakreswar Temple in Birbhum district. On Saturday, BJP chief J P Nadda will be in Kolkata and is expected to visit three puja venues in and around the city.