Bengal: Harmony rally ends as Mamata Banerjee reaches Park Circus Maidan to address public gathering

• Mamata: I tell those who are trying to divide people on the basis of religion, it’s easy to light a fire but it is difficult to douse a flame. Not one seat should be given to the BJP in this state
  
• Mamata: I have my utmost respect for both Ram and Sita. But they never utter the name of Sita. Are they anti women? There would not have been a Ram without a Sita, without Kashalya who gave birth to him. Yet Sita had to enter Pataal to pass her chastity test.
• Mamata: This fight has only just begun. This fight will continue. The cowards die, the brave fights and lives
  
• Mamata: I will not take any advice from the Left who I have fought all my life. All I asked was that the strong regional parties should be allowed to fight on their own and that the BJP should be taken on one on one in at least 300 seats. But they say they will do whatever pleases them. I warn them not to do anything which will end up strengthening the BJP. You will not be forgiven if you help the BJP in winning the elections
  
• Mamata: I have no objection to people worshiping Ram or any other divine entity as per their faith. I only object to diktats on what to wear and what to eat coming from majoritarian political groups.
  
• Mamata: A section of people are trying to sell off this country in the name of votes. They are trying to bulldoze us with colour mandates for government buildings which are symbolic of a particular religious community.
  
• Mamata: The BJP not only tries to divide the Hindus, it is also creating a section of middlemen among Muslims who are trying to divide the minorities. I never indulge in such things.
  
• Mamata: The country will be saved only if people of Bengal take leading initiative against all that’s happening in the country today
  
• Abhishek Banerjee at Sanhati Rally in Park Circus: "Koi Kehta hain Hindu khatre me hai, Koi kehta hain Musalmaan khatre me hai....main kehta hu Dharam ka chashma hata ke dekho...poora Hindustan khatre me hain" (Some are saying that the Hindus are in danger, others are saying that the Muslims are threatened. I tell them remove the glasses of religion from your eyes… and you’ll find that the entire country is in danger)
  
• Protesting Left students, who far outnumbered the police presence, forced their way out of the barricades put up by the cops. The rally, which is protesting against alleged “politicization of communal sentiments” and causing “disharmony” and raising slogans against the “ABVP’s attempts to communalise campus”, walked all the way up to Dhakuria in South Calcutta following which it took a U-turn and is currently headed baqck towards the university main campus
  
• The protesting students were seen getting engaged in a bitter spat followed by a scuffle with the police after they were stopped at the gate on grounds they had not secured any permission for taking out a rally on the streets of the city. Earlier, in the morning, Left and ABVP students were engaged in an altercation following the latter’s attempt to observe Ram Mandir celebrations inside the campus
  
• Tension at Jadavpur University campus after supporters of a Left wing students body were stopped by the police at the varsity’s gate number 3 when the students were trying to take out a protest rally outside the campus on to the adjacent Raja Subodh Mullick Road in connection with a tiff which the Left-back students had with their counterparts of the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) inside the campus earlier in the day
  
• Mamata Banerjee on stage flanked by nephew Abhishek and religious leaders across communities
  
• Banerjee reaches her destination at Park Circus Maidan. The leader visits a mosque right next to the public meeting venue. She is now meeting local religious leaders while heading towards the stage from where she is scheduled to deliver a speech
  
• Banerjee walks into a catholic church at the Park Circus seven point crossing
  
• Sanhati Rally resumes after Mamata joins the rally from her gurdwara visit. Rally now headed for Park Circus via Ballygunge PhariMam

• Mamata’s Sanhati Rally halts for a while at the Garcha Road crossing. Banerjee pillion-rides a two-wheeler to reach the Garcha gurdwara. Rally to resume movement after Banerjee returns from the gurdwara after offering her prayers
• Banerjee starts her ‘harmony march’ towards Park Circus Maidan. The Trinamul supremo is accompanied by her party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several MPs, state ministers and MLAs of the ruling Trinamul. Leaders of religious communities across the board are also marching alongside the chief minister. Banerjee is scheduled to visit a gurdwara in Garcha, a church and a mosque in Park Circus before reaching her destination in Park Circus Maidan
• Banerjee leaves Kalighat temple premises, reaches Hazra crossing from where she is scheduled to begin her harmony march to Park Circus Maidan shortly

• Mamata Banerjee reaches Kalighat Temple, offers prayers ahead of her scheduled Sanhati Rally for all faiths
  
• Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari leads a Sanatani rally from Baikuntha Nath Mandir in the Burrabazar area of North Calcutta to the Ram Mandir on CR Avenue

• BJP leader Dilip Ghosh lights a ceremonial lamp containing 27 kilos of ghee at the Balaji Temple at Kharagpur Old Settlement in West Midnapore to mark the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya
  

• BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul participates in multiple ‘Kalas Yatras’ and pujas in various corners of Asansol

• Party MP Jagannath Sarkar participates in Ram Ujaan ceremonies in Shantipur, Nadia

• BJP MLA Kanchan Moitra present amid bhakts at the Shree Ram Pujan ceremony and rally organized by the Gorabazar Sanatani Samaj in Beherampore, Murshidabad

• Dilip Ghosh participates in Ram Sankirtan event and distributes laddoos among bhakts at the Gopali Ashram in the Kharagpur Rural constituency area

Ripples, or more appropriately, waves of sentiments for Lord Ram lashed across various pockets of Bengal on the day of consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and Pran Pratishtha ceremony of its deity, Ram Lalla, the infant form of the hero of Tulsidas-created Ramcharitmanas, also chronicled in Hindu mythology as the avatar of Lord Vishnu.