India, Sept. 24 -- Six years after the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) helped its mouthpiece, Bharatiya Janavarta, set up its first stall at the Kolkata International Book Fair in 2019 to compete the mouthpieces of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and and the CPI(M), the battle between the rivals is getting intense at Bengal's Durga puja pandals in the run-up to the 2026 assembly polls.

As TMC chairperson and chief minister Mamata Banerjee focused on suspension of Central funds for her welfare schemes and detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in some BJP-ruled states while inaugurating pujas days ahead of the festival, preparations to send her message further were on at the office of Jago Bangla, her party's mouthpiece. ...