The Bengal BJP has been mysteriously missing in action since Monday night’s deluge in Kolkata that left at least 10 dead of electrocution and brought massive hardships for the residents living in both highrises and slums alike.
Statements were issued on social media, the famed IT cell activated to attack the Mamata Banerjee government and share memes. On the ground, the saffron warriors could not be seen.
The Kolkata deluge came months before the 2026 Assembly election and offered the BJP an opportunity to nail the Trinamool government on administrative inefficiency and incompetence, as other tested weapons like charges of corruption have yielded zero returns politically and electorally in the state and general elections.
A section of the BJP leaders do not agree.
“What could we do? Block the roads ahead of Durga Puja? Cause more harassment to the people?” asked a former BJP Bengal president.
His tone hid the BJP’s exasperation in its failed attempts to win over Bengal voters. The party just has not been able to capture Bengal’s imagination.
Exactly 25 years ago, the late Jyoti Basu was still the chief minister at the Writers’ Buildings when Mamata Banerjee, then the main Opposition leader in Bengal and also Union railway minister, had raised the bogey of “man-made flood” to hit at the Left Front government over floods in the districts, a bogey that she still keeps pulling out from her hat as the chief minister against the Centre and the central agency the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).
That particular day in September 2000, water from Tolly’s Nullah that flows right behind Mamata’s house on Harish Chatterjee Street had entered her bedroom. She had described it as “unprecedented.”
It was an adjective that she would repeat on the morning after Monday’s deluge.
She blamed everyone from the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, the DVC and the Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) for the inundation and the electrocution deaths on the streets of Kolkata.
In the 14-plus years that Mamata has been at the helm of the administration, every salvo fired against her by the Opposition has failed to yield political dividend.
A section of the Bengal BJP concedes that this was a missed opportunity.
“The state president [Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya] is yet to get his own team in the organisation,” said a party insider. “Those who are managing the day to day affairs of the party are weighed by the uncertainty of whether they will retain their posts once a new committee is formed.
“Most of them don’t have any clue on which issue will spring political and electoral dividend.”
Other sources in the BJP said the party has been busy with the formation of election-related internal committees. Since Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday on September 17, the BJP is nationally observing Seva-paksha (Service fortnight) till Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
“These programmes are being held throughout the country. All the leaders and karyakartas are busy with these events,” said a BJP source.
Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, the most visible face of the BJP in Bengal, denied that the BJP has been absent.
“Who says? Yesterday our MLAs went to the homes of those who died of electrocution. BJP is always active in all issues,” Suvendu told The Telegraph Online.