Kolkata’s Durga Puja circuit is showing how quickly a change in political power can alter the city’s public rituals, committee structures and networks of influence. The shift is visible not in the religious ceremony itself, but in who is invited to inaugurate pandals, perform chokhhudan and occupy formal positions within organising committees.
A report by the Times of India – Kolkata describes a movement in several prominent pujas from Trinamool Congress-linked political figures to leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party after the BJP’s victory in the April Assembly elections. Suvendu Adhikari, identified in the report as the new chief minister, has been invited to inaugurate pujas that were previously associated with Mamata Banerjee. BJP legislators and ministers have also taken on visible roles at several festival committees.
The developments offer a view of Kolkata’s political system through its cultural infrastructure. Durga Puja committees are not municipal bodies, but major neighbourhood institutions. They organise public space, manage large visitor flows, coordinate with authorities and shape how localities present themselves during one of the city’s most important annual events. Their leadership and guest lists therefore carry significance beyond ceremony.
The change at Sreebhumi Sporting Club illustrates the transition. Last year, the puja was inaugurated by then chief minister Mamata Banerjee. This year, Adhikari was invited to cut the ribbon. The club’s general secretary, Debajit Chatterjee, told the newspaper that the chief minister spent 45 minutes at the pandal, performed arati and lit a lamp at the rangoli.
At Ahiritola Sarbojanin Durgotsab, the chokhhudan ritual was performed by Purnima Chakraborty, the BJP MLA from Shyampukur, who is also chairperson of the 2026 organising committee. The report says that the role had previously been reserved for former MLA Shashi Panja, a senior minister in the former Mamata cabinet.
At Mohammad Ali Park, the institutional transition is visible through a change in the person scheduled to inaugurate the event. The puja was previously inaugurated by Kolkata North MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay. This year, Tapas Roy, described in the report as a minister and chairperson of the organising committee, is scheduled to perform the inauguration. The secretary of the organising association, Surender Sharma, said Roy had been a guiding force for the puja.
These examples suggest that political influence over public festivals operates through several channels at once. Invitations give leaders ceremonial visibility. Chairperson and adviser positions give them a continuing organisational role. Ritual participation, such as chokhhudan, places elected representatives within the cultural life of a neighbourhood. Together, these positions create a public map of who holds authority and access after an electoral change.
The report identifies several pujas that previously had strong associations with Trinamool leaders but have now invited Adhikari. They include Chetla Agrani, known as Firhad Hakim’s puja; Tridhara Sammilani, steered by former Trinamool MLA Debashis Kumar; Suruchi Sangha, associated with former sports minister Aroop Biswas; Hindustan Club in Gariahat, linked to former junior minister Chandrima Bhattacharya; and Kasba Naboday Sangha, where former Trinamool councillor Sushanta Ghosh was a key figure.
The significance of this list is not that every committee has necessarily changed its political alignment. Rather, it shows how public-facing institutions respond to a new administrative and electoral hierarchy. Organisations that once sought the presence of the previous ruling establishment are now seeking the presence of the new one. The adjustment may be pragmatic, symbolic or both.
One organiser quoted in the report rejects a partisan interpretation. Anjan Ukil, president of Ballygunge Cultural Association, said the committee had invited Banerjee because she was the chief minister and was inviting Adhikari because he was now the chief minister. His explanation presents the invitation as an institutional convention rather than an ideological shift.
That distinction matters. A public festival committee may not see itself as a political organisation even when its office-bearers and guests are prominent politicians. For organisers, inviting the head of government can be a way to secure recognition, maintain administrative access or simply follow established practice. The same action, however, can be read politically by residents because public ceremonies are also performances of legitimacy.
The evidence supplied in the report does not establish how many committees have formally changed their office-bearers, whether the changes are permanent or how the new appointments were made. It also does not provide vote shares, attendance figures, funding details or a systematic comparison of all major pujas across Kolkata. The phrase describing a shift from blue-and-white to saffron is therefore best understood as a political reading of visible changes, not as a quantified measure of the festival landscape.
Still, the individual cases reveal an important feature of urban governance: influence is not exercised only through official departments, budgets and government orders. It also travels through associations that manage public spaces and community events. During Durga Puja, these associations become highly visible interfaces between neighbourhoods, political representatives, sponsors, police, civic authorities and visitors.
This interface is especially significant because Kolkata’s pujas occupy streets, parks, club grounds and other shared urban spaces. Their organisation involves temporary structures, pedestrian movement, traffic arrangements, crowd management, electricity, sanitation and public safety. The supplied article does not detail these operational arrangements, but the prominence of puja committees means their leadership can affect who coordinates with the wider administrative system during the festival.
The political value of participation is also connected to scale. Jorasanko MLA Vijay Ojha is expected to inaugurate at least 15 pujas in his constituency, according to the report. Shyampukur MLA Chakraborty said she looked forward to participating in pujas in her area and beyond. Such schedules turn the festival into a dense network of local appearances, allowing representatives to establish relationships across multiple neighbourhoods in a short period.
For elected representatives, the events offer direct contact with residents outside legislative proceedings or government offices. For committees, the presence of a senior leader can bring visibility and recognition. For local communities, an inauguration may reinforce the status of the puja within the city’s cultural calendar. These overlapping incentives help explain why political participation can remain strong even when organisers insist that the festival transcends party lines.
The transition described by the Times of India – Kolkata also raises a question about the relationship between cultural institutions and political continuity. When the ruling party changes, do neighbourhood associations merely update their ceremonial guests, or do their internal networks, funding relationships and organisational priorities also change? The report provides evidence of changed invitations and appointments, but not enough to answer the wider question conclusively.
That limitation is important. A change in who cuts a ribbon does not by itself prove a change in the functioning of a puja committee. Nor does a politician’s position as chairperson necessarily show that the organisation has become an arm of a political party. The available evidence supports a narrower conclusion: political transition has altered the public faces and formal roles associated with several prominent Kolkata pujas.
The festival therefore becomes a useful lens for observing the city’s broader institutional ecology. Kolkata’s urban life is mediated by formal agencies and informal organisations alike. Clubs, cultural associations and festival committees often sit between residents and the state, managing collective activity while also developing relationships with political power. Their autonomy, accountability and social reach are rarely examined with the same attention given to municipal departments, but they can be equally important during major public events.
What the present account confirms is a visible redistribution of ceremonial and organisational prominence after the Assembly election. What remains uncertain is whether the redistribution will endure beyond this festival season, whether it will extend into the committees’ operational decisions and how residents interpret the new political presence. Those developments will determine whether Kolkata’s puja landscape has seen only a change of guests or a deeper reorganisation of urban influence.
