West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee takes part in the sacred 'yajna' at the Lord Jagannath temple, at Digha, in Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: The competitive politics of Hindutva were on full display on the shores of the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated a new shrine of Lord Jagannatha in Digha while, just about 35 kilometres away, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s leader, Suvendu Adhikari, led a “Sanatani Sammelan” in Contai.
The ruling Trinamool Congress hyped up the inauguration of the shrine of Lord Jagannatha by the party supremo, while the opposition BJP launched a campaign to consecrate 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, the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, and Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP chief, 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”.
However, Dilip Ghosh, another state BJP heavyweight, broke ranks with the other saffron leaders and not only attended the ceremony and visited the new shrine but, along with his wife, also had a brief courtesy meeting with the TMC supremo, sending the political rumour mills into overdrive.
“The party had decided not to attend the ceremony to protest against atrocities against Hindus in West Bengal. If he has attended the ceremony, it was his personal decision,” Majumdar said, disapproving Ghosh’s visit to the temple and his meeting with the Banerjee.
“The first glimpse of Lord Jagannath enshrined in the Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) of the Jagannatha Temple will remain etched in my heart forever,” Banerjee said after inaugurating the shrine on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. “I felt my spirit stir with the divine radiance emanating from the sacred idol. I had the privilege of performing the aarati and seeking the blessings of the Lord of the Universe upon our Ma, Mati, Manush (Mother, Land and People).
She welcomed “people from all backgrounds, faiths, and institutions, from North Bengal to South Bengal”, who were present at the inauguration ceremony in the seaside town of Digha.
Built on approximately 24 acres of land in the New Digha Coastal Development Zone, the main temple, at a height of 210 feet from the road level, features a crowning Neela Chakra (an eight-spoke wheel) of Lord Bishnu at its top. The temple was constructed following the architectural style of Kalinga.
The BJP alleged that the TMC government was demeaning the dignity of the Jagannath Dham of Puri in Odisha by building a Jagannath Cultural Centre in Digha in West Bengal and trying to project it as a temple. The saffron party sharpened its campaign to project the TMC as an anti-Hindu party, after the recent protests against the new Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, turned violent and led to communal clashes in Murshidabad.
Adhikari and other BJP leaders criticised the TMC government’s move to replicate the Jagannath Dham of Puri with the temple in Digha. In response to the invitation from the state government, the Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly asked whether the newly constructed edifice was a shrine or a cultural centre as mentioned in the official documents and whether the right to entry to the temple would be limited to the Hindus, as is the practice in the Jagannatha Dham in Puri.