A Janmashtami celebration in Kolkata that for years stood out for its Hindu-Muslim participation is taking a sharply different turn this year.

The 58-year-old festival at Mominpore, traditionally organised with significant participation from Muslim members, will now be managed exclusively by Hindus.

Rakesh Singh, the BJP's losing candidate from the Port assembly constituency in this year's election, said on Tuesday that the festival would be organised by 'only Hindus', arguing that Janmashtami is a Hindu festival.

The shift is significant for a celebration held at the Bhukailash Road-Hussain Shah Road crossing in Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Ward 79.

The area falls within the Port assembly constituency and borders Bhowanipore, represented by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at different points.

Singh, who earlier identified himself as a Congress functionary and was associated with the Indian National Trade Union Congress, a Congress affiliate, said he subscribed to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's view that religion and religious festivals belong to individuals.

He also criticised Mamata Banerjee's repeated formulation that while religion belongs to individuals, festivals belong to everyone.

The celebration, organised by Kidderpore Samaj Kalyan Samity, has a history that predates the current political contest over its character.

Locals said it was started nearly six decades ago by Muslim social worker Md Kashim.

After fading over the years, it was revived by another group of Muslim youths after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011.

Md Alam, a Trinamool functionary and former office-bearer of the organising committee, said the committee had around 20 members, roughly half of them Muslims, from 2011 onwards.

'We used to celebrate the event together, distribute prasad and ensure all rituals were followed. But this year, all Muslim faces have been kept out of the committee,' Alam said.

Singh, who claimed to be both president and chairperson of the Janmashtami organising committee, said the change was necessary to preserve religious traditions.

'Janmashtami is a Hindu festival, and it should be performed by Hindus only,' he said, while adding that people of other faiths should remain welcome to visit pandals.

The development comes roughly a week after the VHP addressed Durga Puja organisers in Kolkata and laid down a set of guidelines for Bengal's biggest festival.

These included avoiding distortion of deity images, designing pandals in a manner that preserves Hindu culture and heritage, and prohibiting non-vegetarian food within the core pandal area on grounds of spiritual purity and cleanliness.

At the Mominpore venue on Monday, a large saffron-and-white pandal was already under construction.

An organiser supervising the work described the change as a 'cleansing activity', saying Muslims had controlled the celebration until last year but that this year's event would be conducted and managed exclusively by Hindus.

For a celebration whose history began with a Muslim social worker and whose recent revival involved Muslims and Hindus organising it together, the change marks a distinct departure from the tradition that had made Mominpore's Janmashtami notable in Kolkata's multicultural landscape.