Mamata inaugurates Durga Puja pandals, meets Vrindavan widows

Despite being down with fever since the last two days, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is on a Durga Puja pandal inauguration spree across Kolkata. She greeted 65 widows from Vrindavan and accepted a token gift from them during one such event Tuesday.

The widows, most of them from West Bengal and who are spending their last years in the Hindu pilgrimage town of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh as castaways, are in the city for the Pujas, the biggest of Bengali festivals that begins Thursday. The trip has been organised by NGO Sulabh International.

The chief minister handed over plain white sarees to them at the inaugural of the Samaj Sevi Club puja, near Deshapriya Park in southern Kolkata, while talking to them.

"They had brought Krishna idols and the Gita from Vrindavan for the chief minister. She exchanged a few words with them," Sulabh International spokesperson Madan Jha told IANS.

The rain notwithstanding, Banerjee was spotted Tuesday wielding the megaphone from her car as she wished the organisers and participants of the Khidderpore 25-Pally puja (in south Kolkata) after formally throwing open the marquee to visitors.

"I can see that people are a bit gloomy due to the rainy weather..therefore I prayed to the goddess to take the rain away and let my people enjoy the pujas," she said, her head partly shielded by a cloth from the drizzle.

"I have fever since the last two days...because I have been getting drenched in the rain while inaugurating the pandals."

Despite the fever, Banerjee could be heard crooning a few lines of the popular Agomoni song (welcome song for the goddess) "Jaago Durga" by Dwijen Mukhopadhyay while declaring the puja of Ekdalia Evergreen Club open.