Durga Puja in West Bengal is entering a new political chapter in 2026. With a new government in office, several familiar features of Kolkata’s biggest annual festival are changing, from the Red Road carnival and puja patronage to government grants, food practices and the way pandals are inaugurated.
The biggest change is perhaps the end of the Durga Puja carnival on Red Road, a much-remembered feature of the Mamata Banerjee years. Instead, the new government is preparing a major Mahalaya programme at Eden Gardens on October 10, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend.
But the changes go beyond the calendar. Several well-known pujas have seen changes in their organising committees, while questions around food, themes, political stalls and the religious character of the festival have also emerged.
At the same time, the number of Durga Pujas across Bengal continues to rise. As of September 24, 2,318 pujas had registered on Kolkata’s Sahaj single-window permission portal. The figure included 270 new applicants. In 2025, the final number of applications reached 2,936, the highest recorded till then.
Across West Bengal, the state power department expects the number of community pujas to cross 65,000 this year, based partly on demand for temporary electricity connections.
Durga Puja’s long tradition of change
The community Durga Puja, or barowari puja, is generally associated with late-18th-century Guptipara. Historians, however, differ over the exact year and even over whether the earliest community festival there was Durga Puja or Jagaddhatri Puja.
The term barowari is commonly linked to baro yaar, meaning “twelve friends”.
Bengal’s Puja traditions have evolved repeatedly. Zamindars once played a major role in patronage, while political leaders later became closely associated with prominent community celebrations.
The visual language of Puja has changed too. Traditional ek-chalar thakur, where Durga and her family are presented together within one frame, now exists alongside elaborate multi-part installations. Sabeki pratima, or traditional idols, stand alongside theme-based creations made with unusual materials.
Kumartuli remains at the centre of Kolkata’s idol-making tradition. As Mahalaya approaches, its narrow lanes become increasingly busy with visitors, photographers and people looking for a glimpse of the idols before they leave for the city’s pandals.
The nearby Kumartuli Ghat is also being developed. A Rs 10-crore project covers a 300-metre stretch of the Hooghly riverfront and includes viewing areas, walkways and improved public facilities.
Political patronage of Kolkata’s big pujas changes
One of the most noticeable developments in Durga Puja 2026 is the change in leadership at several prominent pujas.
During the Trinamool Congress years, several major celebrations became closely identified with influential party leaders. Sreebhumi was associated with Sujit Bose, Suruchi Sangha with Arup Biswas and his brother Swarup, Chetla Agrani with Firhad Hakim, and Naktala Udayan Sangha with Partha Chatterjee. That pattern is now changing.
At Sreebhumi Sporting Club, a new committee is overseeing this year’s Puja. BJP leader Kanak Debnath is its president. Organisers have said the scale of the celebration will remain while efforts will be made to reduce prolonged road blockades.
Suruchi Sangha has also undergone a leadership change. BJP MLA Sourav Sikdar is now secretary, with the new committee replacing the earlier arrangement associated with the Biswas brothers. The transition, however, was met with protests from some residents.
At Tala Prattoy, known in recent years for its striking themes, much of the previous organising structure has changed. Sushanta Shibani Pal is handling this year’s theme.
The changes are not limited to individual puja committees. A new statewide organisation called the Paschim Banga Durga Puja Samannay Samiti, or West Bengal Durga Puja Coordination Committee, is taking shape. Kartik Maharaj is its chairman, while BJP MLA Rudranil Ghosh is chief adviser.
The organisation could provide another coordination platform alongside the established Forum for Durgotsab, which represents hundreds of Puja committees.
New pujas and disputes add to the churn
Some familiar Kolkata locations are also entering new territory. Allen Park on Park Street, better known for its Christmas and New Year celebrations, will host a Durga Puja for the first time. The celebration is being organised by Kolkata Sanatani Sangha, fronted by BJP leader Shankudeb Panda.
Mohammad Ali Park has also seen a dispute, with competing committees putting up banners under different names after BJP councillor Meena Devi Purohit proposed changing the venue’s name to Mahabali Park.
Bagbazar’s historic Puja faced a separate problem after a committee election became deadlocked. The matter eventually went to court.
Durga Puja grants and free electricity
The financial system supporting community Durga Puja is also being altered. The Mamata Banerjee government began providing annual assistance of Rs 10,000 to Puja committees in 2018. The amount was gradually increased and stood at Rs 1.1 lakh in 2025.
For 2026, the new BJP government has announced Rs 1 lakh per committee. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has also appealed to larger pujas to leave the assistance for smaller celebrations that require financial support. Several prominent committees have agreed to forgo the grant.
Suvendu Adhikari cut Durga Puja grants by 10000 rupees and declared Ashtami a dry day while telling big pujas to refuse state aid. Free electricity and fire licence waivers cannot replace lost excise revenue and community funding.https://t.co/9GUnkoXZWH
— VIZHPUNEET (@vizhpuneet) September 8, 2026
The government has also asked electricity suppliers to provide free power to Puja organisers. In 2025, the electricity waiver under the previous government stood at 80%.
There was also a controversy in Birbhum after BJP district president Uday Shankar Banerjee reportedly told committees that those accepting the 2026 government grant would have to display the chief minister’s photograph or face action. Minister Dilip Ghosh rejected the claim.
Will Bengal’s Durga Puja food traditions change?
Food has emerged as another important point of discussion ahead of Durga Puja.
In August, VHP central advisory council member Swami Nirgunananda suggested that non-vegetarian food should be kept away from the immediate Puja area. He also acknowledged that Bengal’s Durga Puja has never been entirely vegetarian.
VHP leaders later clarified that no official or binding instruction was prohibiting non-vegetarian food during Durga Puja.
Religious preacher Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, popularly known as Bageshwar Baba, subsequently criticised the consumption of non-vegetarian food during Puja and described those who did so as “pakhandis”, or hypocrites.
The remarks drew criticism, including from within the BJP. State party president Samik Bhattacharya defended Bengal’s food traditions. Adhikari later visited Kalighat temple and ate traditional prasad that included fried fish, fish head and basanti pulao.
At Suruchi Sangha, organisers have said mutton and hilsa will continue to be served during the Maha Navami feast.
Some housing societies have similarly said their Puja feasts will retain their existing traditions and remain largely non-vegetarian, except on Maha Ashtami.
However, some organisers are creating clearer boundaries around the sacred space. Thakurpukur SB Park and Chaltabagan have restricted visitors from entering while eating. The new Allen Park Puja will not have food stalls inside the park.
Theme pujas continue, but with a different emphasis
Theme-based Durga Puja remains part of Kolkata’s festival landscape in 2026. There is no official census dividing theme pujas from traditional celebrations.
Organisers have been asked to ensure that idols and themes do not hurt religious sentiments or undermine what the new government describes as Sanatani traditions.
Yet experimental themes have not disappeared. Subjects linked to care workers, gender identity and ecology continue to feature in this year’s celebrations.
Alongside them, some major pujas are placing greater emphasis on patriotism, nationalism and Hindu cultural identity.
Santosh Mitra Square, headed by BJP MLA Sajal Ghosh, has selected Vande Mataram as its theme. New Town Sanatani Durga Puja is exploring what its organisers describe as the connection between ancient Indian traditions and modern science.
The association between Durga and political or nationalist ideas, however, has a much longer history.
Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay used the image of Durga as a symbol of Bengal in Amar Durgotsav, included in Kamalakanter Daptar. Later, Kazi Nazrul Islam invoked Durga as Shakti in his poems and Agomani compositions. His 1922 poem Anandamoyeer Agamane used the Goddess’s arrival as an anti-colonial metaphor, leading to his prosecution for sedition by the British.
Why ‘Sharadotsav’ has become a political issue
Another debate concerns the word “Sharadotsav”, a term widely associated with Bengal’s autumn festivities and Durga Puja.
Suvendu Adhikari has asked Puja committees not to accommodate CPI(M) bookstalls using the term “Sharadotsav” instead of “Durga Puja”. The argument is that the terminology dilutes the festival’s religious identity.
The Left has pointed out that Rabindranath Tagore wrote Sharadotsav, a play celebrating autumn, in 1908.
A Puja committee at Kamardanga in Tangra has gone further, announcing that CPI(M), DYFI, SUCI and other Left-wing organisations would not be allowed to operate stalls at its celebration. The committee has urged other organisers to take a similar position, while the CPI(M) has criticised the move.
Mahalaya replaces the Red Road carnival
The Red Road immersion carnival, introduced in 2016 during the Mamata Banerjee government’s tenure, has been discontinued.
Its replacement is a large Mahalaya programme at Eden Gardens on October 10, 2026. Maha Shashthi falls on October 17 this year.
The event is expected to feature traditional performers, thousands of dhakis, fireworks and a drone show. Narendra Modi is expected to attend and virtually inaugurate prominent Kolkata pujas associated with the programme.
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Mahalaya carries a special place in Bengal’s cultural calendar. Along with the tradition of tarpan, the day is strongly associated with Birendra Krishna Bhadra’s recitation of Mahishasuramardini, which has been linked with Mahalaya since the 1930s.
The Eden Gardens event therefore places the new government at the centre of the ceremonial beginning of the Puja season.
More changes for Kolkata pandal-hoppers
The rules for Puja celebrations are changing in several other ways. Puja pandals will not be allowed to hold inaugurations before Mahalaya, according to the new government.
Maha Ashtami will be observed as a dry day, with liquor sales prohibited. DJs have also been banned during Puja celebrations and immersion processions.
Organisers have been asked to prevent prolonged road blockades and complete immersions within the prescribed period.
Even the look of Kolkata Police’s crowd-management volunteers is expected to change. A police tender has proposed orange T-shirts and caps in place of the familiar white-and-blue attire.
Bengal’s Durga Puja has never had one fixed identity
Despite the changes around politics, patronage, food and presentation, Bengal’s Durga Puja tradition has always contained considerable variation.
Historical accounts show that there was never a single rule governing the appearance of idols or the food served during Puja.
Mahendranath Datta, Swami Vivekananda’s younger brother, recorded differences between Shakta and Vaishnava households. He noted that the lion accompanying Durga could have a conventional lion’s face in Shakta homes, while Gosain or Vaishnava households sometimes depicted it with a horse-like face.
Food customs differed as well. Brahmin households could serve rice, vegetables, curd and payesh, while Shakta Brahmin homes permitted fish. Kayastha households served luchi.
Old family pujas continue to reflect that diversity. The Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family offers katla as Nabami bhog, while fish is offered during Puja at Chorbagan Chatterjee Bari. At the Janbazar home of Rani Rashmoni’s descendants, the Goddess receives vegetarian bhog even though non-vegetarian food is served to guests.
That history makes Bengal’s Durga Puja difficult to fit into a single cultural or dietary template.
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The committees may change, political associations may shift and new rules may shape the festival’s public face. But the traditions of Durga Puja in Bengal have developed over centuries through different communities, families, artists and organisers.
For 2026, the most visible changes are already clear. The Red Road carnival is gone, Eden Gardens will host the Mahalaya celebration, several prominent pujas have new leadership, and debates over food, themes and political participation have entered the festival conversation.
