West Bengal: Political slugfest remains unabated even during Durga Puja

At a time when people of the state are trying to catch up with the festivities during its last phase, political slugfest remains unabated even during Durga Puja here in West Bengal.

Ruling TMC's state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has claimed that the CPI (M) was trying to indulge in politics outside the puja pandal.

"Even Trinamool Congress has book stalls outside several puja pandals. On Monday evening, the CPI (M) tried to encash the occasion and without permission tried to malign other political parties among the revellers. They [CPI (M)] don't believe in Durga Puja so they can give stalls on Sundays as there is no harm in setting up book stalls," said Ghosh.

It may be noted that on Monday evening, Bengali movie director and CPI (M) activist Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, along with CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, were detained by Kolkata police at Lalbazar after getting into a heated argument with TMC supporters at Rashbehari in south Kolkata. They were later released.

Meanwhile, CPI (M) has alleged that the TMC goons have broken their book stall set up at Rashbehari.

Taking a dig at TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, Mukherjee said that CPI (M) has been providing book stalls at Durga Puja Pandals during the festive season for several years.

"We all know Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore also didn’t believe in idol worship, but can anyone keep him out from Durga Puja? CPI (M) has been providing book stalls even before Kunal Ghosh was born. We were detained by the police who said that our protests were disrupting roads during Durga Puja," said Mukherjee.