The letter to Amit Shah was sent on September 11 (File)
Amid accusations by the ruling Trinamool Congress that the BJP is politicising Durga Puja, West Bengal's biggest festival, a city committee has requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to inaugurate their puja this year.
Senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said on Thursday that the decision to invite Mr Shah had been taken by the organisers.
The letter to Mr Shah was sent on September 11
Reacting to the development, senior Trinamool Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee said ,"The BJP is setting a bad trend."
A spokesperson of the pujo committee of Friends Club of Triangular Park in South Kolkata said on Friday, "We are not associated with any political party, we don't have any political colour. We are inviting Shri Amit Shah ji as the union home minister. His presence will make the people of the locality proud."
He showed journalists a copy of the letter to Mr Shah's office by the puja organisers and said, "We (BJP) don't believe in doing politics with Bengal's biggest festival with which the emotion and sentiment of the people are involved."
"We (state BJP) had merely forwarded the letter to Mr Shah's office as requested by the club authorities," he said.
Mr Mukherjee said, "Now a party has suddenly come up which is not even hesitating to spoil the mood of Durga Puja celebrations by bringing in people who had never been part of our celebrations".
Sanghasree, an old and well known community Durga Puja committee, had to drop its plans to invite Mr Shah for the inauguration after protests by Trinamool supporters about a month ago.