Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said on Wednesday that the party wouldn’t organise any Durga Puja and it was not the organisation’s job to conduct such celebrations.

BJP MP Locket Chatterjee had said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would virtually inaugurate the party’s Durga Puja at Salt Lake near here on October 22.

“The BJP is not organising any Durga Puja. I have no such information. There will be a single day cultural programme for which a symbolic idol might be installed,” Ghosh told a news conference.

He was responding to questions about the BJP’s Durga Puja at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, which is under the Union ministry of culture, at Salt Lake.

Although Ghosh ruled out the party holding a Durga Puja, he said: “A certain morcha or cell might hold the Puja. The party isn’t.”

Ghosh made the statement on a day the EZCC authorities issued a letter to “certify that Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal booked our Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex … from 1727 October 2020 to organise Durga Puja…”

The state BJP chief said it wasn’t the party’s job to organise Durga Puja. “Our aim is to connect with the people during the Puja. We hope the Prime Minister will do that with his speech,” said the Midnapore MP.

Locket declined comments on Ghosh’s statement.

However, state BJP leaders, including national joint general secretary (organisation), Shivprakash, and state vicepresident Pratap Banerjee met on Wednesday to discuss the nittygritty of hosting the Puja.

According to a source present at the meeting, none of the leaders said anything about a singleday celebration. “We were assigned various tasks for the Puja. It will be a proper fiveday affair, just like any other Durga Puja,” a leader said.

A section of the party leaders, however, feels Ghosh is not aware of the development as he has been incommunicado for three days because of illness.

“Dilipda had kept his phone switched off for three days since he was unwell. The Puja had been planned during his absence and hence, he is unaware of it. There is no confusion,” a source said.