Kolkata, June 26 (IANS) Political circles in West Bengal are all set to witness a unique mass-outreach war on Friday involving the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari over the sacred Ratha Yatra festival.

On one hand, the Chief Minister will herself start the tradition of pulling the ‘Rathas’ (chariots) carrying the idols of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Lord Balabhadra, and their sister Subhadra of the newly-inaugurated Lord Jagannath Temple at Digha in East Midnapore district on Friday, for which she had reached the sea resort on Wednesday.

Arrangements have been made to ensure that prasad of the temple reaches the doorsteps of all the citizens of the state through the state’s public distribution system.

However, the prasad’s distribution has been marred with controversy on two grounds.

The first is how the money from the state exchequer could be spent for facilitating the distribution of the fruits of religious practice.

Secondly, controversies also shrouded over reports of contracts being given to non-Hindu sweets shops, mainly Muslims, to prepare the sweets to be distributed as prasad.

While Chief Minister Banerjee will be busy throughout Friday at Digha, LoP Adhikari has an equally hectic schedule throughout the day over the same Ratha Yatra festival.

LoP Adhikari will be participating in three Ratha Yatra festival programmes, one in Kolkata and the other two in his native district of East Midnapore.

He had also arranged to bring mahaprasad from the iconic Lord Jagannath Dham Temple at Puri in Odisha, which will be distributed among people on Friday from Shree Gauranga Mahaprabhu Temple at Tamluk in East Midnapore district.

Political slugfest between the BJP and Trinamool Congress has also surfaced over this mass-outreach war.

On the one hand, Trinamool Congress leaders have claimed that while arranging the Ratha Yatra function at Digha, the Chief Minister had facilitated the participation of people from different religions, the programmes of the LoP Adhikari are intended for sheer “political competitiveness”.

On the other hand, the state BJP leaders have claimed that the Chief Minister Banerjee’s emphasis on the Ratha Yatra festival this year is “politically motivated” to influence the Hindu voters before the crucial Assembly election in West Bengal next year.

–IANS

src/khz