From a way of showing off family wealth to the British to standing in as an icon of the freedom movement and now with UNESCO's Cultural Heritage tag, the festival has had quite the journey.
In Kolkata, BJP has paid little heed to the tradition of pandals focusing on contemporary politics but instead claimed that the footwear in a pandal is an insult to the goddess.
A day after the West Bengal government lifted the night restrictions during the Durga Puja festival, the Calcutta High Court said that Puja pandals will have to be treated as containment zones and visitors will not be allowed to enter inside them.