Calcutta, Oct. 1: The CPM leadership compelled Subhas Chakraborty to express regret over his visit to the Kali temple at Tarapeeth, but it is somewhat soft on leaders organising Durga Pujas.

Senior partymen like MP Sudhanshu Seal and Rabin Deb are Puja patrons.

Seal, who in his own words is involved with “at least 30” Puja committees, said: “Many organisers do not even take my permission to declare me their patron. I visit pandals and also attend religious gatherings of the minority communities. There is nothing wrong in it... we need not hurt people’s faith in a land of believers.”

He neither prays to the goddess nor offers flowers, though. Chakraborty, the transport minister, “could not refuse” an old man who gave him jaba flowers and asked him to offer them to the Kali idol.

“Nobody requests me to offer anjali (to the deity). I avoid pandals when the puja is performed to avoid mutual embarrassment,” said Seal.

CPM Calcutta district secretariat member Rabin Deb said: “People’s representatives can’t avoid this involvement.”

Like Seal, he likes to have a “feel of the festival”.

Tourism minister Manab Mukherjee, however, believes in “keeping a distinction between public relations and ideological purity”. “I never permit Puja committees to declare me their patron.”

State party secretary Biman Bose, however, denied the leaders’ involvement in Puja bodies. “No CPM leader is associated with them,” he said.