Khagen Murmu
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: After Dilip Ghosh, another senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, Khagen Murmu, lauded Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for building a new temple of Lord Jagannatha at Digha, a seaside town in the state, even as the saffron party continued its campaign against the shrine.
Suvendu Adhikari, a senior BJP leader in West Bengal, said that the “unauthorised use of surplus sacred wood” from the 12th-century temple of Lord Jagannatha at Puri in Odisha to make the idols of the deities consecrated at the new shrine in Digha was a disgraceful conduct and an affront to ethics, morality and centuries-old culture and traditions.
Nudged by the BJP government in neighbouring Odisha, the Sri Jagannatha Temple Authority (SJTA) in Puri launched a probe to find out whether some of the sacred wood, which had remained unused since the making of the new idols of the deities for the ancient shrine in 2015, had been transported without authorisation to Digha. The allegation stemmed from the statement made by one of the servitors of the Lord Jagannatha temple in Puri, Rajesh Daitapati, who was involved in the construction and consecration of the new shrine in West Bengal. He said that some of the unused sacred wood from Puri had been used to make idols of the deities of the new shrine in Digha.
Adhikari welcomed the probe launched in Odisha. He and other BJP leaders also criticised the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal for referring to the new shrine as a ‘dham’, pointing out that Hindu religious texts recognised only four ‘dhams’ – Dwarka, Badrinath, Puri and Rameshwaram – and no new temple could be called a ‘dham’.
Murmu, one of the 12 Lok Sabha members of the BJP from West Bengal, said that the new temple of Lord Jagannatha in Digha would draw not only devotees from around the country but also foreign tourists, creating employment opportunities for people of the state. “I would like to applaud this initiative of the chief minister. People of West Bengal will get an opportunity to seek the blessing of Lord Jagannatha. I will also visit the temple and seek the blessing of Lord Jagannatha when I will go to Digha,” said Murmu.
He made the comment even as the BJP heavyweight Dilip Ghosh, a former Lok Sabha member, of late drew flak from within the party after he not only attended the inauguration of the new temple of Lord Jagannatha in Digha by Banerjee on April 30 but also had a courtesy meeting with the chief minister and complimented her for getting the shrine constructed.
Murmu was the latest to dismiss criticism against Ghosh after several other leaders, like the chief of the state BJP’s women’s wing, Falguni Patra, and legislator Sushanta Ghosh, stood by the former national vice president of the saffron party.
The TMC hyped up the inauguration of the shrine of Lord Jagannatha by the party supremo on April 30, even as the BJP on the same day launched a campaign to purify and renovate nine temples, which were allegedly desecrated and damaged during the recent communal clashes triggered by the protests over the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, in Murshidabad.
Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar stayed away from the inauguration ceremony, despite being invited by the state government. So did most of the other BJP leaders, accusing the TMC of trying to use the temple to gloss over its “failure in protecting the Hindus of West Bengal from persecution” and of pursuing “a policy of appeasement” to keep intact the party’s “vote-bank among the Muslims”.
But Ghosh, the former state BJP president, broke ranks with the other leaders of the saffron party and attended the inauguration of the new temple. Majumdar, the state BJP chief, was quick to convey the party’s disapproval to Ghosh’s “personal decision” to attend the ceremony. Adhikari refrained from directly commenting but tacitly took a dig at Ghosh. Some other BJP leaders, like parliamentarian Saumitra Khan and former parliamentarian Arjun Singh, however, were more candid in criticising the former ‘pracharak’.
Adhikari did not invite Ghosh to the “Sanatan Sammelan” he held in his home turf, Contai, on the same day the temple of Lord Jagannatha in Digha was inaugurated by Banerjee. The BJP workers loyal to Adhikari stopped the vehicle of Ghosh and staged a brief protest demonstration when the veteran leader was returning from Digha to Kolkata.