Overview
- Humayun Kabir says the Beldanga ceremony will draw about two lakh people with 400 guests on stage and that construction is planned to take roughly three years.
- He plans to skip the Trinamool’s Kolkata ‘Samhati Diwas’ rally the same day to oversee the event and has invited opposition MLA Naushad Siddiqui to attend.
- BJP leaders denounced the plan as appeasement and polarising politics, and Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya declared such construction would not be allowed on the “land of Bharat.”
- Congress figures offered restrained reactions focused on governance issues while clerical voices, including the All India Imam Association and former Babri litigant Iqbal Ansari, urged avoiding politicisation of Mandir–Masjid matters.
- Kabir, previously show-caused by TMC for indiscipline, has put the party on the spot as the leadership has not issued a prominent rebuttal and West Bengal heads toward the 2026 assembly polls during the voter roll revision exercise.