Suruchi Sangha is one of the biggest crowd-puller pujas
The club has unveiled a revamped 15-member committee, appointing BJP North Dum Dum MLA Sourav Sikdar as secretary and inducting nine senior BJP workers, including BJP South Kolkata district chief Anupam Bhattacharya. This year’s festival will truly reflect public participation,” Sikdar said, adding that the Khuti Puja would be held on July 24 at the traditional venue.
Preparations are on and we will unveil this year’s theme during the Khuti Puja on Ulto Rath,” senior club member Tanmay Chatterjee said. “The committee is yet to be finalised but we have invited Chakraborty to lead the puja and organise it with the same grandeur as in previous years,” senior club member Subhomoy Mullick said. “We have already held our first round of meetings and are determined to make this year’s puja bigger than ever,” the club’s new secretary, Anil Giri, said. Sayantan Kanjilal, secretary of Tarun Sangha in South Dum Dum (another puja previously associated with Bose), said both Tiwari and Rajarhat-New Town MLA Piyush Kanodia attended the club’s Khuti Puja last week.
Clubs that have been associated with Trinamool Congress veterans are now inducting BJP MLAs and functionaries in key roles, a change that may signal the changing character of some of the city’s most-viewed and influential festive platforms. The most striking change has come about at Suruchi Sangha, the New Alipore puja whose future appeared uncertain even a few days ago after the regime change and an LIC legal notice over the ground that hosted the pandal. Sikdar lives in New Alipore. Former sports minister Aroop Biswas and his brother, Swarup Biswas, who was arrested around six weeks ago, have both been dropped. I have joined the committee not as an MLA but as a local resident. Behala West BJP MLA Indranil Khan is the new chief patron of the Barisha Sarbajanin Durgotsab. “We always invite the incumbent MLA to be part of the advisory committee. He has agreed to become our chief patron. Behala Young Men’s Association has included both Behala West MLA Khan and Behala East MLA Sankar Sikdar in its organising committee, with one serving as president and the other as chief patron. BJP MLA and junior tourism minister Purnima Chakraborty is set to replace former finance minister Sashi Panja in a leadership role at Shyampukur Sarbajanin. South Dum Dum’s Tarun Dal, where former fire minister Sujit Bose was the president, has dissolved its previous committee altogether; Tiwari has been appointed president.