Mamata Banerjee’s outreach to the Hindu community in the form of the mega Jagannath temple inauguration in the coastal town of Digha is clearly aimed at the 2026 Assembly election in West Bengal. In the wake of the violent protests over the Waqf law and the alleged persecution of Hindus in Murshidabad district, a narrative peddled by the BJP, the Trinamul Congress supremo went all out to promote the Jagannath temple opening. Just as Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the pran pratistha of the Ayodhya temple in January 2024 in the hope of electoral dividends in the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata oversaw the temple inauguration with an eye on the forthcoming election in her state. The West Bengal chief minister has been accused time and again by the BJP of minority appeasement. With a 30 per cent Muslim population that has so far overwhelmingly voted for the Trinamul Congress, it is no........

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