Poll busy-ness dampener on city clubs’ khuti puja

Kolkata: The ongoing poll season, described as Vote Puja, has forced major Durga Pujas in the city to defer their khuti pujas. The ritual is usually held on Poila Baisakh, as well as on Rath Yatra. But this time, Tala Prattoy is the only big-budget puja organiser that performed khuti puja on Wednesday. A few other exceptions were Behala Youngmen's Association and Pathuriaghata Pancher Palli Sarbojanin Durgotsab.April 15 was also celebrated as World Art day, which commemorates Leonardo da Vinci's birthday. Artist Sanatan Dinda painted a 42ft-long graffiti spreading the message "No War, Just Peace" to kick-start Behala's 77th year of Durga Puja on Poila Baisakh. "Art has always encouraged innovation and sparked discussion worldwide. I chose the Durga Puja platform, and my art, to spread the message of stopping the war," Dinda said. The artist once popularised the khuti puja, which started in a big way in 2004 during his para puja of Nalin Sarkar Street.Artist Bhabatosh Sutar, who pioneered transforming Durga Puja into an interacting art platform, and is involved this year with only the Tala Prattoy puja, was in Odisha for puja-related work and was unable to attend Wednesday's khuti puja at the club ground. "We have corporate funding, and as the new financial year has started, we fixed our budget as well. To meet the completion deadline, we started much earlier this time and chose Poila Baisakh to start the construction of the pandal through khuti puja," said Dhrubajyoti Bose Suvo, mentor of the club. "Our work cannot be delayed due to the elections as we have some serious commitments," Suvo added. Tala Prattoy Durga Puja's budget is estimated to be Rs 3 crore.The ground situation is different this year with most leading puja committees associated with poll-related activities. Planning the puja is likely to start only after the polls, around mid-May. "Vote puja is the main reason we deferred our khuti puja. Earlier, the khuti puja used to be held on Poila Baisakh," said Somnath Das, senior executive member of Santoshpur Lakepally Durga Puja. The puja had a projected budget of Rs 1 crore in its 69th year, where their president was also Trinamool's ward 103 president.Saswata Basu, vice-president and spokesperson for Forum for Durgotsab and secretary of Hatibagan Sarbojanin, and who is also playing an important role as chief election agent of contesting Trinamool candidate Atin Ghosh in Kashipur-Belgachhia AC, said, "Every year, we release the puja banner on Poila Baisakh. But this year it will be delayed. We will fix the date after the election result day on May 4."Ellora Saha, councillor of ward 24, who had been busy for the election campaign for Shashi Panja, the contesting candidate of Trinamool from Shyampukur constituency, organised a small banner opening ceremony for the Pathuriaghata Durga Puja on Poila Baishak evening. "We do it every year, but this time it was on a low scale with party workers, puja connoisseurs and locals participating in a cultural programme and social gathering," she said."This year's Durga Puja is in mid-Oct and we have a fortnight more compared to last year," said Sandipan Banerjee, the new president of Forum for Durgotsab and club secretary of Behala Nutan Dal. Get real-time updates and result insights on the CBSE 12 Result 2026.