Bhagavad Gita.
Credit: iStock photo
Kolkata: Ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, Kolkata's iconic Brigade Parade Ground will host a mega Bhagavad Gita chanting on Sunday, with organisers claiming the participation of five lakh devotees amid the expected presence of top religious figures and senior BJP leaders.
Christened 'Panch Lakkho Konthe Gita Path' (Gita chanting by five lakh voices), the programme is organised by the Sanatan Sanskriti Sansad, a body of spiritual leaders drawn from various monasteries and Hindu religious institutions. It is being projected as the largest collective Gita recital ever attempted in West Bengal, and possibly in the country.
The spiritual lead will be taken by Swami Gyananandaji Maharaj of the Geeta Manishi Mahamandal, while yoga guru Baba Ramdev and several other nationally known religious figures figure among the special invitees.
Organisers said the programme seeks to invoke the state's long spiritual lineage and promote social harmony through scripture.
"In a climate of division, spiritual practice can restore calm and direction," said Swami Pradiptananda Maharaj (Kartik Maharaj), adding that thousands of Gita enthusiasts from across the state have already pledged participation.
The mega Gita chanting is also unfolding a day after the politically charged foundation-laying of a 'Babri Masjid-style' mosque in Murshidabad by suspended Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir, underlining how questions of faith and identity are rapidly converging in West Bengal's public space ahead of the elections due early next year.
The chanting of chapters from the Gita will take place from 9 am, with elaborate arrangements being put in place for crowd management, security and medical support amid expectations of an unprecedented turnout.
Yet, in West Bengal's politically charged landscape, religion rarely operates outside the electoral shadow.
The Sunday gathering comes exactly two years after the 'one lakh voices' Gita chanting at Brigade in December 2023, held months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
That event saw the visible presence of BJP leaders and senior RSS figures and, despite being branded apolitical, triggered a fierce political clash with the TMC, which accused the BJP of using faith as a cover for polarisation.
This time, the political subtext is sharper.
While the organisers have invited Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor C V Ananda Bose, neither is expected to attend. Sources in the Lok Bhavan, the new name of Raj Bhavan, said the Governor is out of town and unlikely to return before Sunday, while there has been no official confirmation from the Chief Minister's Office.
In contrast, the BJP's top brass in the state is set to be in attendance.
Sources said former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh, current state president Samik Bhattacharya, his predecessor and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, along with several other senior leaders, will attend the programme.
The event is widely being seen as a show of Hindu consolidation in the run-up to the 2026 polls, particularly after Adhikari had earlier flagged the "five lakh Gita chanters" push as a declaration of cultural assertion from Bengal's Hindu electorate.
Three large stages have been erected at the sprawling Brigade Parade Ground in the heart of the city -- the main stage for nationally prominent monks, two auxiliary stages for Bengal-based saints, and a smaller cultural stage where devotional music will open the programme.
Security has been intensified across central Kolkata, with extensive crowd-control arrangements and emergency medical teams positioned in and around the venue to manage what could become one of West Bengal's largest religious congregations in recent years.
Political observers note that Brigade is not merely a ground but Bengal's most politically loaded stage, where every large mobilisation, spiritual or otherwise, carries electoral meaning.
"For a gathering of this scale led by nationally influential religious figures just months ahead of the assembly polls, the line between devotion and mobilisation inevitably blurs," a senior political analyst said.
For now, the organisers insist the focus remains on "unity through scripture".
But as the state hurtles towards an election year, the sight of lakhs gathered at the Brigade, where religion and politics routinely intersect, is once again set to ignite debates that travel far beyond faith and into the heart of the 2026 poll battle.