Kolkata Floods After Record Rainfall: Politics, Pain, and Punditry

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As Kolkata reels under its heaviest September rain in decades, killing at least 11 people, TMC and BJP clash over governance failures, Farakka barrage mismanagement, and CESC’s role in electrocution deaths ahead of Durga Puja.

By TRH State Desk

Kolkata, September 24, 2025 — Kolkata, the city once romanticized as the “London of the East,” has found itself underwater yet again. In just a few hours between September 22 and 23, the city recorded over 300 mm of rain—the third-highest September rainfall in its history. Streets from Salt Lake to Elliot Road turned into rivers, homes were submerged, and at least 11 lives were lost to electrocution. As residents struggled with flooded basements and failed pumps, a predictable political blame game unfolded.

Journalists and citizens alike captured the extraordinary scenes. “Unprecedented,” wrote Tamal Saha, posting images of elevated areas under water. Others shared haunting visuals of submerged electricity meters and pumps, raising fears of power outages and electrocution.

The tragedy quickly spiraled into a political battlefield. TMC MP Sagarika Ghose blamed the Centre, citing negligence in dredging the Farakka Barrage and unregulated water releases from the Damodar Valley Corporation. “Our CM has been repeatedly writing to the Centre,” she told PTI, insisting that the state government was working “24×7” to pump water out before Durga Puja, despite the scale of the disaster.

But the BJP seized on the crisis to mount a scathing attack. Party IT cell chief Amit Malviya called it a “governance disaster,” alleging that Mamata Banerjee had squandered a ₹4,300 crore drainage fund from the Asian Development Bank. He accused her of shielding CESC, the power company under fire for electrocution deaths, because of political cronyism. “This is not a natural disaster,” Malviya thundered, “this is Maa Durga’s wrath for the transgressions Mamata committed.”

Caught in the middle are the people of Kolkata, who endure the same misery year after year—open electric wires, unplanned drainage, delayed relief—while leaders trade accusations. Experts like Dr. Vineet Kumar also challenged sensational claims of a “cloudburst,” pointing to IMD data showing the rain, though historic, did not meet that definition.

The symbolism could not be starker: on the eve of Bengal’s grandest festival, Durga Puja, its capital has been brought to its knees. For residents bailing out their homes, this isn’t about cloudburst semantics or partisan point-scoring. It’s about survival, accountability, and the right to live in a city where rain doesn’t turn deadly.

Until governance rises above politics, the people of Kolkata will continue to drown—both literally and figuratively—every monsoon.

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