Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata through video conferencing at Salt Lake on Thursday as the five-day celebrations begin in West Bengal amid the pandemic.

The State BJP leaders said they have made elaborate arrangements for the live-viewing of PM Modi’s virtual address to the people. TV screens have been put up in all the 78,000 election booth areas across the state. The prime minister will virtually inaugurate a pandal that BJP has set up in Salt Lake in Kolkata at a cultural centre run by the central government’s Ministry of Culture. Today is maha shashti, the first of five days of worship of goddess Durga.

Durga Puja is intrinsic to Bengali society and a huge opportunity for public outreach. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has inaugurated 200 pujas virtually and over a dozen in person in Kolkata city.