TMC leader felicitates 14,000 Hindu priests in Bengal's Birbhum

A senior leader of Trinamool Congress on Monday organised a massive "Brahmin and Purohit Sammelan" (a Brahmin convention) in Bolpur town of Birbhum district, a move seen by the opposition BJP to arrest consolidation of Hindu votes in favour of the party.

The day-long sammelan is organised by party's Birbhum district president, Anubrata Mondal in his home district.

Mondal said the convention aims to highlight "misintepretation" of the hindu religion by the BJP and discuss what the Hindu religion stands for.

"The Hindu religion is being misinterpreted by the BJP. Today we will discuss the real meaning of Hindu religion," Mondol told reporters.

A source in the ruling party said around 12,000-14,000 Hindu priests are attending the meet that started around 12.30 pm on Monday.

The priests will be felicitated with a copy of the Gita, shawl and pictures of Sarada Maa and Ramakrishna, he said.

The saffron party has accused the Trinamool Congress leadership of practicing "soft hindutva" to stop the Hindu voters from uniting under the BJP.

They have been quoting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent visit to Sagar island to take stock of arrangements for the January 14 Makarsankranti festival in support.

"The so-called secular leaders are practicing Hindutva because they are well aware that Hindus are uniting under the BJP. They have realised that they will no longer be able to win elections by appeasing Muslims," BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.