On 1st day of WB polls, PM likely to show up at ‘Matua’ shrine in B’desh
KOLKATA: On the day the West Bengal witnesses the first of its eight-phase state assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be heading for an unusual shrine in Bangladesh — Orakandi .
Orakandi is not far from Tungipara in Gopalgunj, the ancestral home of ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and daughter Sheikh Hasina, the now Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
It is the most sacred shrine of the ‘Matua’ community, a Hindu sect whose numbers are considerable both in West Bengal and Bangladesh.
Modi will reach Bangladesh on March 26, the day observed in Bangladesh as Independence Day, when in 1971, Pakistan's brutal army unleashed 'Operation Searchlight’, the genocide of Bengalis in tens of thousands that sparked the country’s struggle for freedom.
Modi has already expressed his desire to visit Tungipara, where the ‘Bangabandhu’ lies buried and the visit has been scheduled for March 27 after necessary security clearance arrangements by both Indian and Bangladesh security agencies.
March 27 is when West Bengal goes to its first phase of polls.
But Bangladesh security officials say they now have a fresh request, Modi wants a visit to Orakandi to pay respects to the Harichand Thakur, the founder of the Matua sect, who was born on March 11, 1812.
“We are examining the security aspects of the proposed visit of Indian PM to Orakandi and once we are satisfied, we will clear the trip,” said a top Bangladesh security official. But he was unwilling to be named because he was not authorised to speak to media.