A crowd of pilgrims assemble at Kapil Muni temple at Gangasagar Mela on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Tuesday, January 14, 2025
| Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri

As lakhs of devotees took a dip at the confluence of river Hooghly with the sea at Gangasagar Mela on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, on Tuesday (January 14, 2025) a political war of words erupted between the Ministers of the West Bengal government and the State BJP leadership.

Over the past few days the West Bengal government has been boasting about the arrangements at the mela demanding a ‘national mela’ status to Gangasagar Mela and claiming that the Centre has not paid a single penny for organising the annual pilgrimage.

On Tuesday (January 14, 2025) evening, West Bengal Minister for Power and Youth Affairs Aroop Biswas while claiming that 85 lakh pilgrims have taken a dip at the confluence of the river and sea since during the mela, patted the government on its back and said such arrangements have not been made at any other religious gathering in the country.

“The Centre has always deprived the State and not paid us a single penny for organising this mela,” Mr. Biswas said speaking to journalists at the Gangasagar Mela. About half a dozen Ministers have been deployed to oversee arrangements of the mela.

Earlier in the day, West Bengal BJP Sukanta Majumdar arrived at Gangasagar Mela and took a holy dip at the confluence of the river and the sea.

Mr. Majumdar tried to draw a parallel between Gangasagar Mela and Mahakumbh Mela and said that West Bengal does not cooperate with the Centre and the arrangements at Kumbh Mela are far better. “We will grant national mela status the day the BJP comes to power in West Bengal,” the BJP president.

Aroop Biswas said that the BJP leadership is daydreaming and the party will never come to power. The WB Minister also added that there have been several communications sent from the office of Chief Minister West Bengal to the Prime Minister’s Office and Mr. Majumdar being Minister for State is not aware of such developments.

There was also a debate as to why posters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were only present at the Gangasagar Mela and not Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Biwas said that there is no restriction on putting up posters of the Prime Minister but the BJP will have to have supporters to put up the posters.

Meanwhile, the auspicious time for the holy dip for Makar Sankranti started at 6.58 a.m. on Tuesday (January 14, 2025) and will continue until Wednesday (January 15, 2025) morning till 6.58 a.m. The crowd swelled on Tuesday (January 14, 2025) with long queues of devotees thronging the Kapil Muni temple and the ghats at Gangasagar. Five persons have died during the pilgrimage since January 12 and seven persons have been airlifted after falling ill.

About 152 help desks have been set up in the mela complex and 3000 sagar bandhus have been deployed to keep the ghats clean. About 12,000 police men have been deployed for security arrangements and 672 persons have been arrested for different crimes. There have been 272 incidents of pick pocketing and in 260 incidents the stolen items have been recovered.

As the mela concludes in the next few days, recycling the garbage of the Gangasagar Mela will be a challenge. Recently a workshop has also been organized for using the garbage of the mela for construction of roads.