The Durga Puja organised by BJP’s Bengal unit, in its second year, proved to be a major failure as most party leaders gave it a miss, the turnout baring once again the factionalism in the party.

Apart from state unit chief and Balurghat MP Sukanta Majumdar and Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition in th Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, most BJP leaders steered clear of the puja at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Complex, Salt Lake. Even Majumdar and Adhikari visited EZCC only once, on October 11 during the inauguration.

Last year, the puja was inaugurated through a virtual address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This year, organisers requested BJP national president J.P. Nadda to do the honours, but in vain.

To hold it or not had triggered a major debate in the party both last year and this year. The faction owing allegiance to former state unit chief and current national vice-president Dilip Ghosh was against the idea. The fact that the puja could be held this time was owing to the new state president, who gave his consent as late as on October 2.

Its preparations got a jolt when Sabyasachi Dutta, a Trinamul turncoat, went back to his old party on October 7. Dutta, a resident of Salt Lake and former mayor of the area, had been given the onus by the BJP to organise the puja.

Like last year, Ghosh was absent from the puja. Sources said he left for Uttarakhand on a pilgrimage on October 12, which was a “protest” against the party's decision of holding the puja. MP and state general secretary Locket Chattopadhyay was in Delhi for most of the puja. Though she came back to the state and attended a family event on Friday, she didn’t visit EZCC. MP and state youth wing chief Saumitra Khan spent his Puja at his native place Bankura. While sources said Khan helped the party get permission to use the EZCC compound at very short notice, he stayed away.

None of the four Union ministers of state from Bengal, Nisith Pramanik, John Barla, Shantanu Thakur and Subhash Sarkar, were seen at the event. Another notable absence was that of MP Debasree Chaudhuri, former Union minister of state, who lost her ministerial berth in July. She attended the puja at a party worker’s home at Dum Dum on Wednesday, but gave EZCC a miss.

“Such a poor turnout at an event inaugurated by the PM last year reveals the situation of the party in Bengal,” said a source.