'Give Strength': MP Kalyan Banerjee Gets Emotional During Durga Puja

Kalyan Banerjee, a Lok Sabha MP and a Mamata Banerjee loyalist, got emotional on Monday as he offered prayers to Goddess Durga inside a Durga Puja pandal in West Bengal.

Sitting beside an impressive Goddess Durga idol, Banerjee, overwhelmed, chanted a Sanskrit shloka in respect of the deity and cried. "Give me wisdom, give me strength, give me knowledge, give me devotion, Ma," he said on camera.

Banerjee was the main patron of the Puja for the Serampore 5 and 6 Palli Group and Business Association pandal. Every year, he used to perform a grand Puja at the RMS ground adjacent to Serampore Station in Hooghly. This year, people linked to the ruling BJP have organised the puja at the RMS ground. Hence, Banerjee attended the puja at Ganga Darshan, where he lives.

Earlier in the day, he blamed the Kolkata Police for the stampede at a Durga Puja pandal.

19 people died in the stampede earlier this week.

"You see, I have already said that there is total mismanagement. There is a failure on the part of the Kolkata Commissioner of Police, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the station officer. What was the police doing? How did they permit that?" he said.

He said that the pandal's entry and exit gates were located in narrow alleys.

"The pandal was inaugurated by the Chief Minister, along with police officers. Why did they not notice that insufficient arrangements were made? There was insufficient police presence... It was a total failure on the part of the state administration," he added.

He blamed the chief minister for the accident.

The Kolkata Police have arrested seven people, including puja organisers, in connection with the stampede. These include members of the organising committee -- Chorebagan Sarbojanin Durgotsab committee general secretary Raj Kumar Sewda and vice-president Santanu Dubey -- besides Biplab Mukherjee, who built the bamboo structure; Koushik Saha and Pintu Dey, who were responsible for crowd control; and Suman Chakraborty and Rajesh Pal, who were in charge of private security.

They were sent to seven days' police custody on Saturday.