West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is usually not known for staying at home when the state administration and police are buzzing with activities like crowd management during events such as Durga Puja, the grandest festival of West Bengal. However, according to sources in the state administration, the Chief Minister has decided to stay at home during the five days of Durga Puja this year.
Mamata, known for her keen interest and hands-on approach with regard to festivities, will spend Durga Puja at her south Kolkata residence. Turning her home into a makeshift Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), she will keep track of issues such excessive rain, the flood-like situation in certain areas of north and south Bengal due to excess release of water from dams and crowd management during Durga Puja.
“During Durga Puja the CMO will function from the Chief Minister’s residence. Some officials of the CMO will be on duty there on rotation basis,” a state government official said.
Mamata has also instructed her Ministers and MPs to stay in their respective constituencies during the festivities to ensure no untoward incidents take place.
TMC sources revealed that one more reason Mamata has decided to stay at home during Durga Puja, is because she does not want to cause any inconvenience to revelers due to traffic restrictions imposed when her convoy is on the move.
However, the mercurial TMC supremo has made the most of the opportunity to reach out to people during Durga Puja. Apart from being physically present at Durga Puja pandals for the inauguration, she has effectively used social media to reach out to the masses during the festivities.
During her week-long inauguration spree, Mamata held 85 Facebook live sessions which were viewed by a whopping 25 lakh people. It got more than 1 lakh shares and 30 lakh likes.
