Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the previous Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments in West Bengal, alleging that they had sought to suppress what he described as “Sanatani traditions and culture”. He alleged that while the Left described religion as “opium”, the TMC tried to turn West Bengal into “Greater Bangladesh”.After inaugurating a Ganesh Puja pandal at Kestopur in Kolkata, Adhikari said the alleged efforts to undermine the state’s cultural identity had continued for nearly five decades, referring to the 34-year Left rule and the 15-year TMC rule in the state.“For the past 49 years, for 34 years those who called dharma ‘opium’ were in power under the communists, and for the next 15 years they (the TMC) tried to make it into Greater Bangladesh. Now a government has come which wants to bring back the culture and ‘parampara’ (tradition) that was being forgotten,” Adhikari said.He alleged that during the Left Front rule, stalls outside puja pandals displayed books by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin but not works by Swami Vivekananda or Lokenath Baba. “You wouldn’t find the Hanuman Chalisa or the Bhagavad Gita. It was explicitly declared there that they did not believe in religion and considered it opium,” he said.Must Read | ‘Write Durga Puja, not Sharodotsav’: Suvendu takes a dig at CPI(M) bookstallsTargeting the previous Trinamool Congress government, Adhikari alleged that attempts were made during its tenure to “Jamati-ise” Bengal. Without naming former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, he referred to the decision to restrict Durga Puja immersion on a day coinciding with Muharram.“In 15 years of their tenure, not in the first tenure but in the last part, they tried to turn Bengal into Jamati. One year the day of immersion was changed… She had said during the meeting that there is Muharram, thus Bijoy Dashami there would be no immersion. One cannot do that. One has to follow the panjika. Our parampara was slowly being changed,” he said.Adhikari also criticised a former state minister who is currently in jail, alleging that the former chief minister had attended the minister’s Durga Puja inauguration during Pitru Paksha, a period considered inauspicious for such ceremonies according to Sanatani traditions.Story continues below this adHe said Durga Puja inaugurations should take place during Matri Paksha and called for “absolute purity” to be maintained during Mahashtami.Recalling Partition, Adhikari said his mother had been forced to flee Barisal in erstwhile East Bengal because of her Hindu identity, carrying little more than the clothes she was wearing.Also Read | Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari: Will uproot those who chant ‘Free Kashmir’, ‘Lal Salam’ from Jadavpur UniversityDescribing the state as the “homeland” of Bengali Hindus, he said the state was created on June 20, 1947, and urged Sanatanis to “remain united beyond linguistic and ethnic identities.”“Previously there weren’t so many Ganesh Pujas. Some used to think it is in Maharashtra. No, it is for all Sanatanis all over the world. Some used to think Ma Durga is only for Kolkata. No, it is for all Sanatanis,” he said.Story continues below this ad“The wall that was raised — that you are Hindi-speaking, you are Gujarati, you are Bengali, you are Marwari — we have broken that wall down in 2026. At the end of the day, we are all Hindustanis (Indians),” he said, adding that protecting Bengal as a Bengali Hindu homeland was the responsibility of all.Adhikari said his government believed in the principle of “‘Bahujana Sukhaya Bahujana Hitaya’ (for the happiness of the many, for the welfare of the many)”.