Kolkata, Apr 30 (PTI) On the day West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated a Jagannath temple at Digha, senior BJP leaders lashed out at her alleging that she is playing politics and resorting to gimmicks and hurting the sentiment of devout Hindus.

BJP state president and union minister Sukanta Majumdar said the TMC should not forget that the Jagannath temple in Puri, which came up centuries ago, is “the greatest of all dhams".

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The temple at Digha in Purba Medinipur district is a replica of the 12th-century shrine in Puri.

"After failing miserably in its anti-Hindu agenda, the Trinamool Congress is trying to pass off the Jagannath Cultural Centre as a temple in order to degrade the sanctity of the Dham (in Puri). Many are falling for this deception. Open your eyes, do not commit the sin of disrespecting Lord Jagannath," Majumdar said.

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The state BJP president claimed that those who set up the Jagannath temple in Digha and project it as another citadel of the Lord after Puri are going against the scriptures and it is an act of sacrilege.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, said, "The West Bengal government did not construct a temple, it is a cultural centre. The Constitution of India bars state or central governments or its agencies from spending the taxpayers' money on building religious infrastructure."

The West Bengal government or any of its agencies do not have the legal or religious authority to build a temple for Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, he claimed.

Adhikari said the cost of constructing the Ram temple at Ayodhyay in Uttar Pradesh had not been borne by the Central government or the UP government but by the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerath Kshetra Trust with donations from Hindus across the globe.

“Such gimmicks hurt the sentiments of devout Hindus and devotees of Lord Jagannath,” he said.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former state president of the party Dilip Ghosh visited the new Jagannath temple at Digha along with his wife and met the CM.

"It is a grand temple. The deities are so divine, majestic and beautiful. I came here to pay my obeisance to the Lord and came across the hononourable CM who was courteous and expressed happiness that I visited the new place of pilgrimage. None is comparing it with the Jagannath temple in Puri,” Ghosh said.

Nothing else should be read in his visit, Ghosh said later.

However, several senior BJP leaders including Adhikari expressed reservations about Ghosh's visit.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)