New Delhi: Kolkata’s largest Eid congregation was held at the Brigade Parade Ground on Thursday instead of the historic Red Road venue, marking a major shift in the city’s traditional Eid prayer arrangements in decades.
The change in venue came after a series of meetings between the Kolkata Police and the Calcutta Khilafat Committee over crowd management, traffic movement and at the insistence of the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government that issued fresh guidelines discouraging religious gatherings on public roads.
“For the first time since 1978, namaz was not offered on roads anywhere in West Bengal,” senior BJP leader and co-incharge of West Bengal Amit Malviya posted on X.
For the first time since 1978, namaz was not offered on roads anywhere in West Bengal. https://t.co/Aiiuf9vWlx
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 28, 2026
Local media reports said that Eid prayers were held at Brigade Parade Ground on the very first day of the erstwhile Left Front government in 1978.
Located in the heart of Kolkata, the Brigade Parade Ground is under the control of Army’s Eastern Command. The ground has been historically associated with major political rallies, state events and public gatherings. It is in this ground that Bangladesh founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed a massive joint rally on 6 February, 1972.
Officially called Indira Gandhi Sarani, the 2 km-long Red Road is a British era boulevard connecting Fort William to Eden Gardens. The road got its name from the crushed red soil used to pave it. Built in 1820, it served as an emergency runway during World War II. The annual Republic Day Parade in Kolkata is hosted on this iconic stretch.
For years, Red Road hosted Kolkata’s biggest Eid congregations, drawing lakhs of people during Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha prayers. The gathering had become a symbolic religious and political event in Kolkata, often attended by senior political leaders and public representatives.
“Earlier, when the Eid congregation was held on Red Road, the public suffered from traffic for hours. Now that it has shifted to the Brigade parade ground, there is no public suffering due to traffic, and I also want to say thank you to the people following the government orders,” Santosh Kumar Pathak, a BJP member from the Chowringhee assembly constituency, told ThePrint.
“And there was one problem about the brigade parade ground water logging due to the rain, and the government will take care of it.”
Functionaries of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also thanked the people for ‘obeying’ the orders. “I want to thank the government and the people who obeyed the orders,” Keya Ghosh, a West Bengal BJP member, told ThePrint, reacting to the peaceful conduct of the gathering at the new venue.
Velamarthi Venkatachalam is an alum of ThePrint School of Journalism and an intern with ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)