As Assembly elections draw near, inaugurations of new and renovated temples are appearing on the calendars of city councillors.

A meditation and yoga centre inside Vivekananda Park is set to be inaugurated on February 15 and the renovation of a Matua temple in Jadavpur is nearing completion.

The Prabhu Jagannath Meditation Centre inside Vivekananda Park on Southern Avenue will be managed by a trust that includes two Trinamool councillors, one of whom is also an MLA.

In off-record conversations, some Trinamool councillors acknowledged that a narrative promoted by the BJP — portraying the ruling party as anti-Hindu — has created pressure on some of the party’s elected representatives.

They also added that Trinamool leaders have long been associated with their neighbourhood pujas.

Trinamool spokesperson Arup Chakraborty drew a distinction. “The Hinduism practised by Bengalis is not the Hindutva preached in the cow belt. For ages, Bengalis have celebrated Durga Puja and eaten fish and meat during the festival. We revere Goddess Saraswati and offer her bhog with ilish,” he said.

Vivekananda Park

The idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra (Balaram), and Goddess Subhadra have arrived at the Vivekananda Park centre. On Thursday morning, their faces remain covered ahead of the formal inauguration.

The centre has three rooms: the central room houses the Jagannath-Balaram-Subhadra idols, while the side rooms have idols of Radha-Krishna and Nimai.

“It is not a temple. It is a meditation and yoga training centre. We plan to conduct yoga classes. People will come and meditate in the room. You need something in front of you to meditate. Prabhu Jagannath will help in that cause,” said Saurav Basu, councillor of Ward 86.

Posters announcing the inauguration have been put up along Jatin Bagchi Road leading to the park. They carry pictures of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, local MLA and Trinamool’s south Calcutta district president Debashis Kumar, and Basu, who is also the son of MLA and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

Basu said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) built the structure and would hand it over to a trust for management. “Local people wanted a meditation centre. The KMC built it and will hand it over to a trust that will run and manage it. Debashis Kumar and I will be members of the trust that is being formed,” he told Metro.

Basu, after repeated prodding, said the construction cost was “around ₹35 lakh”.

The centre has come up in the northwest corner of the park, in a portion cleared of dilapidated Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) quarters a couple of years ago. Though the structure lies within the park’s perimeter, Basu said the portion “is not part of the park”.

Over the past few days, residents have been visiting the site for a glimpse of the new structure.

A community hall and a booster pumping station have also been built on the same portion of the park.

“After the KMC took custody of the park, it has carried out a lot of development work. We have already built a walkway in the middle with paver blocks,” Basu said.

The meditation centre is opposite the Mainland Sambaran Cricket Academy, run by former Bengal captain and India selector Sambaran Banerjee. It is also where a tall and lanky girl from Nadia’s Chakdaha trained in her early years before going on to captain India’s women’s cricket team — Jhulan Goswami.

Jadavpur

In Jadavpur’s Purbachal, a dilapidated Sri Hari Mission temple built in 1985 is being renovated. The local Trinamool councillor, Arijit Das Thakur of Ward 106, said the project is being funded through local contributions.

“The local people are crowdfunding the project. It will cost about ₹10 lakh. We will also illuminate the temple,” he said. The target is to complete the work by March.

The temple at Srihari Palli, off the Anwar Shah Road connector near Avishikta, is one of several Matua temples in the area.

“There is a significant Matua population spread across neighbourhoods like Daspara, Nitainagar, Gopalnagar, Mukundapur, Ajoynagar, Khudirabad and Jamunanagar. These areas fall within the Jadavpur and Sonarpur Assembly constituencies. Besides the larger temples, you will find small temples in almost every Matua household here,” said Ratan Maity, a former general secretary of the Sri Hari Mission temple committee.

Matua voters play a crucial role in several Assembly seats in Bengal, and both the Trinamool and the BJP have actively courted the community.

Large numbers of Matuas — Dalits who, or whose ancestors, migrated from Bangladesh or erstwhile East Pakistan — are settled in parts of southeast Calcutta.

Historically denied entry into temples controlled by upper caste Hindus, Matuas built their own shrines, celebrating their identity. These temples, dedicated to Harichand Thakur, Shanti Mata and Guruchand Thakur, remain central to the community’s identity and culture.

Wider trend

The focus on temple construction and renovation has been evident in Calcutta in recent years, often with active involvement from local Trinamool councillors.

A Jagannath temple was inaugurated in Anandapur, Kasba, in May last year. A dilapidated Kali temple in Baishali, Tangra, was replaced with a larger structure earlier this year. A Shiv temple modelled on Kedarnath Dham was inaugurated in Netaji Nagar in early 2025. A Bharat Mata temple came up on Raja SC Mullick Road near Sulekha three years ago.

Beyond municipal initiatives, the state government has backed larger temple projects.

The West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) built a Jagannath temple in Digha at an estimated cost of ₹250 crore. The corporation has now been entrusted with constructing Durgangan, a Durga temple, in New Town. A tender floated by Hidco on August 28 estimated the project cost at ₹261.98 crore.

Hidco, which earlier functioned under the urban development department, was brought under the personnel and administrative reforms (PAR) department before the last Durga Puja. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee heads the PAR department.