KOLKATA: Former president Pranab Mukherjee's involvement in Durga Puja in his ancestral village is well known and a puja committee in the city will play the recital of the shlokas in his voice at their puja pandal this year.
Mukherjee had memorised the entire 700 shlokas on the slaying of the demon Mahisasura by the goddess and would chant them while offering puja at his ancestral home at Miriti in Birbhum district every year for the past 50 years, priests who used to assist him said.
Organisers of Aurobindo Setu Sarbojanin Durgapuja Committee in the city said they decided to play recordings of 'Chandipath' by the Bharat Ratna recipient during the four Puja days at the pandal.
The decision was taken after his death on Monday.
"We plan to procure Mukherjee's voice clip of Chandipath, which has shlokas which are an ode to Devi Durga, with the help of people close to the family soon. We are sure the recitals will create a divine and solemn effect on revellers and also enable people to hear the shloka chantings of the erudite statesman, who is the pride of Bengal," a puja committee spokesman said on Wednesday.
The puja committee is also going ahead with ita earlier plan to pay tribute to Satyajit Ray to mark the maestro's 100th birth anniversary by recreating a scene of Pather Panchali in the marquee.
Mukherjee passed away on August 31 in Delhi at the Army's Research and Referral hospital where he had been admitted for brain surgery.