Mamata greets Rajbangshis on Bhandani puja festival

I greet the Rajbangshis as well as the people of all religions and communities living in Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and Alipurduar districts on the occasion of the puja of Bhandani Devi, the goddess of prosperity," Banerjee tweeted in Bengali.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday greeted the people of Rajbanshi community and all religions residing in the districts of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar on the occasion of the Bhandani puja celebrated there. All the three districts are in the northern part of the state.

"After one festival ends, another begins. I greet the Rajbangshis as well as the people of all religions and communities living in Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and Alipurduar districts on the occasion of the puja of Bhandani Devi, the goddess of prosperity," Banerjee tweeted in Bengali. The three-day-long Bhandani puja, known to be a festival of the Rajbanshis, starts a day after Dashami, the concluding day of the Durga puja.

Mythology has it that Goddess Durga, while returning to Kailash after staying for a few days at her parents place, had to cross the Teesta and Torsa rivers in North Bengal. After finding that local people were in distress, she asked them to worship her as Devi Bhandani along with her children.

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, had constituted development boards for different hill communities, besides the Rajbanshis in the plains and for other tribal communities living in the foothills. In September, she also announced that several rural craft and cultural hubs for the hill communities as well as for the Rajbanshis will be set up. The move is seen as aimed at wooing these communities ahead of next year's Assembly elections.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)