TMC’s kirtan rallies to foil BJP rath yatra in Bengal

BOLPUR: When BJP national president Amit Shah embarks on a rath yatra from Birbhum’s Tarapith on December 14, he may well see people singing kirtan ahead of him with kholsand khanjanis(musical instruments) as Hindus in Bengal do while carrying the dead.


This is how Trinamool’s Birbhum president Anubrata Mandal wants to take the wind out of BJP’s sails during its scheduled rath yatra in Birbhum. On Wednesday, he distributed 4,000 kholsand 8,000 khanjanisto villagers from all 19 blocks of Birbhum and five blocks of Burdwan to checkmate the BJP plan. “I have faith in religion. We have organized purohit sammelan before and are distributing kholkartal to the devotees so that they can take the name of God as Sree Chaitanya did. Even Rabindranath Tagore was influenced by this ganakirtan,” Mandal said.

The date for holding ganakirtan is December 14. Two ministers, Ashis Banerjee and Chandranath Sinha, zilla parishad sabhadhipati Bikash Roychowdhury along with Trinamool MLAs from Birbhum were present at the programme.

The idea struck Mandal after Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee announced that her party wouldn’t come in the way of the

BJP rath yatra

. Instead, she asked her partymen to organise Pabitra Yatra the next day on the same route. Unlike some places of Cooch Behar, where Trinamool activists have threatened to stand on the rath yatra route with bamboo sticks on December 7, Mandal took the ganakirtan route in Tagore’s land in a bid to wean people away from BJP.

BJP Birbhum secretary Kalosona Mandal complained that the party was finding it difficult to arrange a venue for Shah’s public meeting in Rampurhat. “Everywhere, the grounds are booked either by Trinamool or organisations affiliated to them. We have booked the railway grounds in Rampurhat but are yet to find a suitable venue for Amitji in Bolpur or Suri,” he said.

BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu, however, sounded confident. “People will join the rath yatra on December 14, no matter who does what. Some may take to kholkartal, bamboo sticks or even carry firearms to intimidate people, but that won’t work. Trinamool taking out kirtan rallies is significant. The programme itself announces the party’s last journey,” he said.