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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will take part in Durga Puja festivities in Kolkata on Friday. He arrived in the metropolis on Thursday night and was received at the airport by senior state BJP leader Rahul Sinha. Shah will inaugurate the pandal of the Santosh Mitra Square Sarbojanin Durgotsab Samity in north Kolkata on Friday. Organised by BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh, the Durga Puja pandal has showcased 'Operation Sindoor'. Shah will then visit the Kalighat temple in south Kolkata and offer puja. Later, he will inaugurate the Durga Puja pandal of the BJP-backed Paschim Banga Sanskriti Mancha at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) in Salt Lake. He will leave the city in the evening.
The five-day-long Durga Puja festival in West Bengal came to a close on Wednesday with the immersion of idols on 'Vijayadashami' at various river ghats across the state. Women participated in the traditional 'Sindur Khela' (smearing vermilion on each other's faces) and offered sweets and prayers to the goddess before bidding her farewell for the year. Organisers of most household and community pujas were seen leading colourful processions to the ghats amid the beating of drums and chanting of mantras. Shortly after the immersion, people exchanged sweets and greetings. At Babughat, which witnesses the highest number of idol immersions in the state, devotees were seen queuing up since 11 am, with chants of Asche bochor abar hobe' (till next year) adding to the fervour. According to sources in Kolkata Police, adequate security arrangements have been made on the thoroughfares and at the river ghats for peaceful observance of the idol-immersion ceremony. The immersion of big-ticket Du