Mamata Banerjee at the iftar. (Pradip Sanyal)

The numbers were fitting for a Mamata Banerjee event. The noise level was missing.

The Trinamul chief on Friday evening presided over what is being called the largest “iftar party” ever in the city, turning the venue, Park Circus Maidan, into a cluster of huge pandals where 4,000 men — and a few women — broke their fast late in the evening.

Spread on the tables was a grand feast. Sweet bread (sirmal), badaam sharbat, fruit custard and bottled water were waiting for the six guests at each table. These were followed by large steaming bowls of halim (dal prepared with meat) and mutton korma, from Arsalan across the road, which were to be shared by each table.

Mamata Banerjee, who looked like the host but was actually the chief guest, as the event was being organised by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), was wearing a white sari with a green border and a white chaddar.

She did not speak on the public address system. Calm prevailed for another reason too — the 4,000-strong assembly of believers was disciplined and dignified, allowing the prayer and the feast to be conducted almost in silence.

As a leader of the local community asked the heavens for “peace to descend on Hindustan” and announced the breaking of the fast, perhaps the message that was being sent out was that with Mamata by its side, Park Circus, which had erupted a few years ago over Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s stay in town, could be a model of peace.

The rest was obvious symbolism. Mamata sat flanked by former Trinamul mayor Subrata Mukherjee in a white-and-blue checkered skull cap (current mayor Sovan Chatterjee wore a peach coloured one) and Kishwar Jahan, mother of Rizwanur Rahman, whose death too had shaken Park Circus up. Mamata offered her prayers bowing down her covered head, her palms joined.

The Park Circus ground was a neat study in green and white. The pandals were done up in green — the colour of the community, as well as of Trinamul — and white horizontal stripes. The ground was covered in green cloth of a uniform shade. The tables were covered with white cloth and set up with 4,000 shiny green plastic chairs, again, of a uniform shade.

The decorator need not worry. With elections in the offing, there will be many occasions to use 4,000 green chairs again.

On her way out, Mamata denounced the attack on the reporters in Jungle Mahal on Friday. “What’s going on in Jungle Mahal? It seems to be an Indo-Pak war!” she said.

She accused the CPM of the assault and said that the party, which runs 93 camps there, is being supported by the central forces.