BJP, TRINAMUL START RELIGIOUS TUG OF WAR

A fierce tug of war has begun between the BJP and the Trinamul to woo the Hindu votebank in West Bengal. After competing against each other with rallies during Ram Navami, the political rivals have now locked horns over the coming Hindu festivals of Janmashtami and Raksha Bandhan. BJP MP Roopa Ganguly, meanwhile, claimed Wednesday that West Bengal was intended to be a “state for Hindus” and that “India was divided to keep Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh”.

On festivals, while the VHP had already announced it will organise Janmashtami celebrations on a massive scale across West Bengal on September 2, the Trinamul Congress will also celebrate Lord Krishna’s birth. Reports from the state show that rakhis with pictures of Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee have flooded markets across West Bengal.

Speaking to this newspaper from Kolkata, Trinamul MLA Nirmal Majhi made it clear that the Trinamul has been “celebrating” Rakhi even before the party came to power in the state in 2011. On Janmashtami, he said he didn’t find anything “wrong” in participating in the festival. He also pointed out that the BJP had never celebrated Janmashtami in West Bengal. “It’s a recent development to polarise votebanks. But it will not succeed,” he said.

“There’s no move to polarise the votebank,” BJP state executive member Shishir Bajoria told this newspaper. “Muslims celebrate Id, Christians celebrate Christmas, Sikhs celebrate Guru Nanak’s birthday, so what’s wrong if we celebrate Janmashtami,” he asked, adding: “The Leftists are atheists, but they also celebrate the birth anniversary of Karl Marx”.