Kolkata: From barely 350 last year to over 800 this year, the number of Ganesh Pujas in Kolkata and its fringes has emerged as a major community celebration, with a large number of committees — many of them debutants — adopting themes drawn from Hindu mythology, religious traditions, Bengali heritage and contemporary politics.For some neighbourhood clubs, this year marks their first foray into Ganesh Puja. At Nimtala Sebayan on BK Pal Avenue in north Kolkata, organisers have started the puja for the first time, calling their celebration ‘Sutanutir Maharaja’. The puja was inaugurated by state BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya on Saturday.“Ours is a small club and what better way to start a puja than with Ganesh Puja? Hence, we started with Ganesh Puja and in the future, if manpower and funds permit, we will organise other pujas as well,” said joint secretary Subha Shaw.In Behala, Vivekananda Sporting Club has also added Ganesh Puja to its calendar for the first time. “We used to start the festive calendar with Vishwakarma Puja. But this year, we are holding Ganesh Puja as well. People have started connecting with the Ganesh festivities over the last few years, and so we have also started organising it this year,” said club member Barun Das.At East Mall Adhibasi Brinda near Haldirams Crossing on VIP Road, organisers said they could not perform the puja for the last two years due to pressure from the local Trinamool Congress leadership, helmed by Debraj Chakraborty. “After the change in govt, we are organising the puja again, and CM Suvendu Adhikari inaugurated it on Saturday,” said Swapan Roychowdhury, chief patron of the puja.The growing scale is also reflected in the themes. At Maniktala, one puja has created a 55ft-high installation of Hanuman, shown tearing open his chest to reveal Lord Ram, with Ganesh depicted in the form of Ram. “We have been organising Ganesh Puja for the last 11 years. But this year, we have taken it to a higher scale,” said a puja organiser.At Executive Palace Apartment Owners’ Association in Baguiati, the theme is ‘Parivartan – Towards a Developed Bengal with a Double-Engine Govt’. The centrepiece is an 11ft Lord Ganesha in a royal setting, accompanied by a 10ft x 10ft 3D wall contrasting what organisers describe as Bengal “before 4th May” and “after 4th May”. The display touches on issues from the Trinamool era to initiatives under the BJP, including Bangladesh border fencing, bullet train connectivity, industrialisation and the demolition of illegal constructions.The political messaging is more direct at a Janbazar puja, where a picture of Durga has been placed on the pandal alongside a half-bust of Gopal Mukherjee, who was associated with armed resistance during the 1946 Great Calcutta Killings. The puja was inaugurated by Bhattacharya on Sunday.Not all themes are political. Lake Kalibari is observing the 16th year of its Ganesh Puja on Southern Avenue, while the Hawa Sokal puja at Dunlop has drawn attention for its distinctive, animated-looking idol, which appears to blink its eyes and has become a social media attraction as the “cutest” Ganesh idol.
