Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 27 (ANI): Union Minister and West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar asserted that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is 'politicising' Lord Jagannath and claimed that Rath Yatra in Digha was being organised for vote bank politics.

'Organising a Rath Yatra is not the job of any government. Jagannath Puri is different, and it happens there, but Mamata Banerjee is doing this to divide the Hindu vote bank. Mamata Banerjee thinks that as the Hindu votes are slipping away from her, her rule will end, and she can do anything to maintain it. This is all political; Mamata Banerjee has politicised Lord Jagannath. Our stand is that wherever the BJP is present, it will participate in the Rath Yatra.'

Earlier, CM Mamata Banerjee visited the Lord Jagannath temple in Digha in West Bengal on Thursday, ahead of the Jagannath Rath Yatra scheduled to start on June 27.

CM Mamata Banerjee said, 'Lord Jagannath temple has become a major place of pilgrimage. The Rath Yatra will be held on a 1 km route from 9 am to 4 pm tomorrow. The aarti will be performed at 2.30 pm. Our ministerial team has arrived here for this.'

The Rs 250 crore temple in Digha, constructed over 20 acres, was inaugurated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on April 30, 2025. The temple, inspired by the 12th-century Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, houses the same deities.

Meanwhile, the temple town of Odisha's Puri is all set to witness the Jagannath Rath Yatra, 2025.

During the festival, devotees draw the grand chariots of the three deities--Lord Jagannath, his brother Lord Balabhadra, and sister goddess Subhadra--to Gundicha Temple, where the deities reside for a week and then return to the Jagannath temple.

The Rath Yatra ceremony is expected to attract a large crowd, making traffic management a key issue(ANI)