Mamata tries to steal Ram Mandir spotlight

Mamata Banerjee wants a split screen’ on local TV channels on 22 January. She is conducting a Sampriti rally on Monday.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

While the country gears up for the Ram Temple inauguration on Monday, 22 January, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to lead a “Sampriti (harmony) rally” accompanied by representatives of all religions in Kolkata on the same day.

Trinamool sources say several hundred sadhus along with leaders of all faiths are likely to join Mamata Banerjee on her Sampriti rally, which will take place on the same day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to lead the pran pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Lalla idol at Ayodhya.

Political observers say the move is prompted by Mamata’s desire to prevent that she would start the rally after praying to Goddess Kali at Kalighat temple. Her next stop is likely to be a Bhowanipore gurudwara. She will go to a mosque off Hazra Road, and then attend a prayer in a church off Park Circus. The rally that starts at 3 pm, sources said, and may take three hours to move from Hazra to Park Circus.

A Trinamool leader said: “While it is expected is that the CM will visit these religious places, we have also made alternative arrangements so that her obeisance is made at the gurdwara, mosque and church, in case she cannot physically go. We expect several thousand people to be part of this rally. The arrangements are being finalised.”

A source indicated that a Prime Minister Modi from monopolising the television screens on 22 January, at least in Bengal. She wants a “split screen” to showcase her “secular credentials” with the help of a helpful vernacular media.