Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that the Jagannath temple being built in West Bengal’s Digha will be inaugurated on April 30, 2025, reported The Times of India.
Banerjee made the announcement after inspecting the construction site in the presence of police and state officials, as well as senior functionaries of the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation, the authority that is building the temple.
“[The temple] will be like the Jagannath temple in Puri,” said the chief minister. “It took three to four years to build this Jagannath Dham. Around 90% of the work is over, another 10% will be completed in the next three months.”
She also pledged Rs 5 lakh from her personal fund for a golden broom for the temple.
The announcement came against the backdrop of several protests in West Bengal in the past few days against alleged attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
On Wednesday, Banerjee said in Digha that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government must protect the “persecuted Hindu minority” in Bangladesh, reported The Indian Express.
“Arrange to bring back those who want to return,” the Trinamool Congress chief was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “Many people are coming from the border. BSF [Border Security Force] is stopping somewhere, not stopping somewhere. The flight is on. Those who have visa-passport are coming. Not a single border has been closed. It’s all about the Centre.”
Following this, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the structure being built by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation was a cultural centre called “Jagannath Dham Sanskriti Kendra” and not a Jagannath temple.
He also stated that the West Bengal chief minister had initiated the Digha project to garner the support of the Hindu community after the Ram temple in Ayodhya was inaugurated, according to The Indian Express.
The Assembly election in West Bengal is expected to take place in or by April 2026.
Responding to Adhikari, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said: “What is BJP’s problem if some people worship Jagannath in Digha. Mamata Banerjee developed Furfura Sharif, Christian holy sites as well as Hindu temples.”
Banerjee believes that West Bengal belongs to persons of all faiths, Ghosh said.
On Tuesday, the chief minister inducted Radharamn Das, the vice president of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness in Kolkata, to the board of trustees of the temple.
Das has led some of the protests in West Bengal against the alleged atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, according to The Indian Express.
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