Kolkata Drowns, Politics Rages: TMC, BJP trade blame amid flood fury

Torrential overnight rains turned Kolkata into a waterlogged city, leaving at least seven people electrocuted and public life paralysed. As citizens struggled through flooded streets and submerged Durga Puja pandals, politics overshadowed the tragedy, with the BJP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) engaging in a fierce blame game.

The BJP flooded social media with images and videos of inundated neighbourhoods, accusing the TMC-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation of “15 years of corruption” and calling the situation a breakdown of civil order. Posts pointed to areas like Science City and Maniktala as evidence of governance collapse, warning investors to stay away from Bengal.

The TMC hit back, accusing the BJP of exploiting human misery for political gain. State Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya argued that the city faced an “unprecedented cloudburst” of nearly 300 mm rain in hours—an event no infrastructure could withstand. “What does BJP do? They ignore science, they ignore compassion, they ignore climate realities. Their obsession is to weaponise pain,” she said.

Women and Child Development Minister Sashi Panja stressed that civic and state officials were on the ground helping residents, accusing the BJP of mocking Bengal while turning a blind eye when states like Haryana face similar crises.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, however, placed full responsibility on civic bodies and the state power department. He slammed what he termed “criminal negligence” in tackling live electrical wires that caused seven deaths, demanding accountability for repeated failures year after year.

As floodwaters continued to choke Kolkata’s daily life, the tragedy became yet another battlefield for Bengal’s bitter political rivalry, with citizens caught between nature’s fury and political mudslinging.