The battle of temples being played out in Bengal marks another face-off between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her former lieutenant-turned-leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari ahead of next year’s Assembly polls.
Camping in Digha, since Monday, Mamata will inaugurate a Jagannath Temple in the beach town 184km south west of Kolkata on Wednesday.
Picture: Amit Dutta
The cash-strapped Bengal government has spent around Rs. 250 crore for the construction of the temple, spread over 20 acres, which is a pet project of the chief minister.
While Mamata and the top leaders and government officials participate in a yajna on Tuesday, the Trinamool rank and file have their duty assigned for the day.
The party footsoldiers have been instructed to play an audio message in every village, area, ward and town across the state.
The 1 minute 9 second audio in Bangla states the Divyadarshan of Lord Jagannath will now happen in Bengal.
“With the sincere efforts of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee a Jagannathdham has been built in Digha. On the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, April 30 the temple would be opened to all devotees. The Trinamool Congress has arranged for live streaming of the event in all the villages, blocks, wards and towns so that no devotee is left out of the grand inauguration ceremony,” states the audio message.
At the live-streaming facility, prasad will also be distributed.
Picture: Amit Dutta
The Jagannath Temple in Digha is modelled on the 12th century shrine in neighbouring Odisha’s Puri, which has been a pilgrim magnet for devotees from Bengal for generations.
Over five years ago while strolling between old Digha and new Digha, Mamata had come across a tiny Jagannath temple and announced the construction of a new one.
On arrival at Digha on Monday, Mamata along with her entourage took a tour of the sprawling pink-sandstone campus built by over 800 artisans from Rajasthan. The temple complex includes a garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum), natmandir, jagmohan and a bhog mandap. At the entrance is a 34-foot, 18-faced pillar carved from black stone.
Picture: Amit Dutta
Around 87 km away in Nandigram, Adhikari’s constituency, the leader of Opposition and local BJP leaders have embarked on their own ambitious project, building a Ram temple on the lines of the one at Ayodhya.
Adhikari had laid the foundation stone of the temple on April 7 coming up at Sonachura. The land for the temple was in Adhikari’s name.
Pralay Pal, a BJP leader from Nandigram and close associate of Adhikari, said the temple should be ready in a year’s time, which would be around the time when the state Assembly polls would already be on.
“Over 40-50 labourers are working day and night to complete the project. This temple is being built not by any government funds or even the party’s. We have pooled funds from our own pockets,” Pal said.
Pal said theirs was a modest attempt to restore Hindu faith in the state.
“We don’t have gaushalas [cow shelter] in Bengal. The Ram temple in Nandigram will have a gaushala and atithishala [guesthouse] along with a kitchen for preparing bhog,” Pal said.
At this stage the BJP leaders in Nandigram cannot set a date when the temple would be completed and opened, but promise a grand show. All they hope for is that the temple be ready before the poll dates are announced, most likely around March next year.