Kolkata: 'Khela Hobe', a slogan well-received by people in West Bengal would resonate in the state's main festival, Durga Puja. Bhabanipur Durgotsav Committee, a community club in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's neighbourhood has been gearing up to showcase its pandal with the theme of Khela Hobe. The biggest festival in West Bengal is to be suffused by 'Khela Hobe' which earned successful innings for Trinamool Congress in Assembly polls 2021.
The main patron of this puja is Sandip Ranjan Bakshi, younger brother of senior Trinamool Congress leader and party's state president, Subrata Bakshi. The Puja organizers are also wary of the likelihood of people's aversion to the idea of blatant mixing of the political slogan with a religious festival. According to them, the initiative is an attempt to popularize sports.
"Our main aim is to highlight the positive side and the need for sports in society. For example, the pandal will display how the supporters of traditionally rival football clubs, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, have got over the rivalry and are jointly participating in the Durga Puja. The pandal will display how the supporters wearing the jerseys of their favourite teams are jointly bringing in the idol of Goddess Durga to the pandal," an organizer said.
Grabbing everyone's attention, there will be a replica of Olympics gold medalist javelin thrower, Neeraj Chopra in the pandal. The replica is designed in such a way that it will give a feeling as Chopra is guarding Goddess Durga and her family members carrying javelin. There will be pictures and themes of other sports like cricket and swimming, among others.
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The pandal will also portray the life of Banerjee, especially her journey as an erstwhile Union sports minister to her present position as the chief minister of West Bengal. Soumen Ghosh came up with the theme. "The idols will be made of plaster of Paris. Although the Khela Hobe slogan was basically a political slogan, chief minister has elevated its status to that of popular entertainment. There can be a match at any sphere of life if popular sentiment is involved with that. I just wanted to portray that popular sentiment in my creations," Ghosh told ETV Bharat.
According to the general secretary of the Puja Committee, Suvankar Ray Chaudhuri, Khela Hobe is no more just a political slogan. "Now it is a popular mass slogan. So there is a point in identifying politics in our efforts. Because of the pandemic, children are unable to participate in sports for a long time. They are just confined to mobile and online games. But they are not real sports," he added. He said that the idea of the theme cropped up on August 16 during the Khela Hobe celebration across the state. "Sportsman spirit is the idea of our theme," he added.
By-election in the Bhabanipur assembly constituency is to be held shortly. Khela Hobe slogan's extensive usage had a pertinent role in TMC's victory in the last Assembly polls. Banerjee earlier announced that August 16 will be observed as Khela Hobe Diwas to pay tribute to sixteen football fans who died in a stampede during a match at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens stadium on the same day in 1980. The state also witnessed several sports tournaments and the distribution of footballs among children from underprivileged families. Banerjee also pressed that Khela Hobe will go national, as her party eyes for Parliamentary polls, 2024, as per reports.
