
West Bengal: Jagannath Dham Temple ‘prasad bought from local sweet shops', alleges BJP
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Friday alleged the Trinamool Congress government is distributing 'sweets from local shops' as 'prasad' of the Digha Jagannath temple, and has accused the administration of playing with the sentiments of Hindu devotees.
'All District Magistrate were ordered to distribute prasad through Duare Ration. The box of sweets will be bought from the local sweet shop. An amount of Rs 20 has been allocated. I have no problem with the budget, but they are not giving the prasad, which is basically demeaning the Hindu dharma,' Adhikari said.
The Jagannath Temple at Digha in Purba Medinipur district was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in May.
After inauguration Banerjee said, the 'prasad' of Jagannath Dham will be distributed to all families of the state along with picture of the temple.
In response, the TMC termed Adhikari's comments as a 'pack of lies' and asserted that the prasad of Lord Jagannath will be sourced from the temple and arrangements have been made to send it across every locality in West Bengal.
Countering the BJP allegations, state Information and Culture minister Indranil Sen said, 'What he (Suvendu Adhikari) has said is not true.. He is basically demeaning the work of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee… I never seen such a secular person than our CM.'
'What Chief Minister did for Hindu temples like Dakshineswar, Kalighat, Kankalitala and others, no ruling party did earlier. Now, to demean the works of Chief Minister, the BJP is doing diving politics. Every one doe not have the capacity to go to the Jagannath Temple and have prasad of the Temple and that is why it was planned to distribute prasad to every family of the state. BJP is now trying to demean that,' Sen further added.
Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal.
Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur.
He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hans India
23 minutes ago
- Hans India
Will be happy if Mohan Yadav as CM performs better than me: Shivraj Chouhan
Bhopal: Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday reiterated complete support and cooperation to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, saying he believes that his successor would do a better job than him for the growth of the state. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, made this statement while addressing a programme in his home district Sehore. CM Mohan Yadav was the chief guest in the programme. "I am not the one who would say I have done this and that. I will be happier if Mohan Yadav do better than me for the people of Madhya Pradesh," Shivraj Singh Chouhan said while addressing a public rally in Sehore. Meanwhile, he also mentioned that his padyatra carried out in his hometown Budhni was presented in a 'wrong way'. He said that some mediapersons had made assessments on their own. "But, let me make it clear that the party's instructions are important. Mohan Yadav is Chief Minister, and I am Union Agriculture Minister," he said. Speaking further, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that being a public representative, he must come to visit the people of his constituency, and it should not be interpreted otherwise. "But some mediapersons tried to speculate that in another way which was totally wrong," the Union Minister said. During his speech, which lasted nearly 20 minutes, Shivraj Singh Chouhan sounded critical of the media a few times, asserting that his Budhni Padyatra was presented in a wrong way, whereas he was committed to follow the party's instructions. He was referring to a two-day 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Padyatra' in the Vidisha constituency which was organised in May to highlight the welfare schemes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. Along with many of his supporters, his family members including son and daughter-in-law had also participated on the second day of padyatra. However, according to sources, within the party, Shivraj Singh Chouhan's march was perceived as his personal endeavour to stay connected with his Lok Sabha constituency and the state where he was Chief Minister for more than 16 years.


United News of India
25 minutes ago
- United News of India
Rahul Gandhi alleges 'match-fixing' in Maha polls, says Bihar will be next
New Delhi, June 7 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra polls were "rigged" and serve as a "blueprint for rigging democracy", and added that the same "match-fixing will come to Bihar next". Tagging an article written by himself, titled 'Match-fixing Maharashtra', in an English Daily, the former Congress president on X said, "How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy". Giving "step by step" account of his claim, Gandhi said, "First rig the panel for appointing the Election Commission then add fake voters to the roll, inflate voter turnout and target the bogus voting exactly where BJP needs to win and then hide the evidence". He further said, "It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing - the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroy public faith in the result". Urging the people to examine the evidence and demand answers, Rahul Gandhi said, "All concerned Indians must see the evidence. Judge for themselves. Demand answers". Gandhi also alleged that like Maharashtra, Bihar too will see the same "match-fixing" in the upcoming state elections, due later this year. "Because the match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy," the Raebareli MP said. UNI RBE RN


The Wire
39 minutes ago
- The Wire
Rahul Gandhi Points to ‘Industrial-Scale Rigging', Alleges EC Role in Maharashtra Assembly Polls
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics Rahul Gandhi Points to 'Industrial-Scale Rigging', Alleges EC Role in Maharashtra Assembly Polls The Wire Staff 38 minutes ago Although many in the opposition ranks have raised such concerns, this may be the first time when the LoP has officially recorded his dissent against not only the Centre but also alleged partisanship of the ECI. Leader of the Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. Photo: X/@OfficeOfKNath via PTI. Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now New Delhi: Pointing out several anomalies in the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance registered an unprecedented victory, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that what went on in the polls was not 'small-scale cheating' but an 'industrial-scale rigging'. Although Gandhi has made such insinuations in different occasions after the Maharashtra assembly polls, he published his detailed op-ed in the Indian Express on June 7, 2025, listing out what he thought was an insidious plan by the ruling BJP to capture 'our national institutions'. He went on to say that the upcoming Bihar elections will also likely be 'rigged' in a manner similar to Maharashtra. 'How to steal an election? Maharashtra assembly elections in 2024 were a blueprint for rigging democracy. My article shows how this happened, step by step,' Gandhi said on X, while publishing his article. 'It's not hard to see why the BJP was so desperate in Maharashtra. But rigging is like match-fixing – the side that cheats might win the game, but damages institutions and destroys public faith in the result,' he went on to say, urging people to 'judge for themselves' and 'demand answers'. 'The match-fixing of Maharashtra will come to Bihar next, and then anywhere the BJP is losing. Match-fixed elections are a poison for any democracy,' he claimed. On June 7, 2025, Gandhi wrote in his article that the capture of Indian elections became evident when the Union government passed the 2023 Election Commissioners Appointment Act that replaced the Chief Justice of India, 'a neutral arbiter', with the union home minister to select the election commissioners. He said that with the CJI gone from the panel, the third member who is the LoP, can 'always be outvoted' by a 2:1 majority in the selection process of election commissioners. 'Ask yourself, why would someone go out of their way to remove a neutral arbiter in an important institution? To ask the question is to know the answer,' he said. Then, he elaborated on why he thought the Maharashtra elections were a 'desperate' attempt by the BJP to rig the elections, after facing defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections earlier. He quoted the ECI data to say that between the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly polls in the same year, the number of voters surprisingly increased by 41 lakhs – 'in just five months' – even though the last five years had seen an increase of only 31 lakh electors. He then alleged that the polling turnout increased by an unprecedented 7.83 percentage points – equivalent to almost 76 lakh voters – after 5 pm on the polling day, according to ECI's own data. He compared similar figures from 2009 onwards when the final turnout was only marginally different from the provisional turnout at 5 pm. 'There are yet more anomalies. There are about 1 lakh booths in Maharashtra, but most added voters were targeted in only about 12,000 booths across 85 constituencies in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had performed poorly in the last Lok Sabha elections. That's an average of over 600 voters at each booth after 5 pm,' he said. 'The EC described the sharp increase in voters as 'a welcome trend in participation of youth'. Apparently, the welcome trend was restricted to 12,000 booths and not the remaining 88,000. This would be an amusing joke, if it were not tragic,' he said. 'One such seat – Kamthi – serves as a typical case study,' he said. He pointed out that although the Congress roughly secured its traditional votes – around 1.35 lakh votes – in both the Lok Sabha and assembly polls In the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Kanthi, the BJP's share jumped from its usual 1.19 lakh in Lok Sabha polls to 1.75 lakh votes in the assembly polls – a spike of 56,000. 'This jump came from the bank of 35,000 new voters added in Kamthi between the two elections. It appears almost all voters who had not voted in the Lok Sabha and almost all the 35,000 new additions were magnetically drawn to the BJP. It is not hard to discern the lotus shape of the magnet,' he said. Gandhi added that in spite of such anomalies, the ECI has only dismissed such concerns and circumstantial evidence raised by the opposition, either with 'silence' or 'aggression'. Gandhi's strong public remarks raising questions on the fairness of India's election process may snowball into yet another flashpoint between the opposition and the union government. Although many in the opposition ranks have raised such concerns, this may be the first time when the LoP has officially recorded his dissent against not only the Centre but also alleged partisanship of the ECI. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News 'Narendra … Surrender': Rahul Gandhi in Swipe at Modi on Trump's Claims of Mediating Ceasefire Four Times Narendra Modi Showed That Criticising the Union Government on National Security is Okay 'Only Saying What Trump Has Said 11 Times', Says Rahul As He Repeats Claim of Modi's 'Surrender' 'It's a Huge Tragedy': In Visit to Poonch, Rahul Gandhi Meets Families Bereaved in Pak Artillery Shelling Interview | 'National Leadership Will Decide on Alliance But UP Congress Is Focusing on All 403 Seats' 'India's Foreign Policy Has Collapsed,' Says Rahul Gandhi Targeting Jaishankar BJP Spent 40% More on 2025 Delhi Elections Compared to 2020 Has BJP Launched a Premature Election Campaign With Operation Sindoor Symbolism? Can Ram Guha Be Nervous and His Book Launches Jocular? For Sarthak Prakashan, the Answer is Yes View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.