The rift in the Bengal BJP appears to have widened over the decision to organise a Durga Puja this year, with one faction busy with the arrangements and another apparently disinterested in the event.

While all puja meetings have been convened by the party’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, the absence of the party’s state unit chief Dilip Ghosh — even before he was taken ill with Covid-19 — and general-secretary (organisation) Subrata Chatterjee has become a talking point at 6 Muralidhar Sen Lane.

“Dilipda and Subratada are seemingly unhappy with how Kailashji has been calling the shots about the Puja. In fact, Mukulda’s (Roy) involvement also didn’t go down well with them,” a BJP source said on condition of anonymity.

“The idea to organise a full-fledged Puja came from Kailashji himself, but neither Dilipda nor Subratada was consulted for their opinion. All this has made the tussles between the Dilip-Subrata and Kailash-Mukul camps more palpable,” he added.

Roy, the former de facto Number Two of Trinamul Congress, was made national vice-president of the party.

This source also pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nod to inaugurate the puja showed that the plan had the approval of the party’s highest ranks.

“It is a sign that the central leadership is slowly taking over the reins of the state unit, rendering the state leadership virtually insignificant. Of course, the state leadership isn’t very happy with this,” he said.

Ghosh, in a recent news conference, said the BJP wasn’t involved in organising any Durga Puja. However, contradicting him directly, other party leaders went ahead with the planning of the event, to be held at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, run by the Union ministry of culture.

Sources said Ghosh was aware of the initial plan to hold a single-day cultural event on October 22, with the possibility of an address by Modi.

“The change in the plan wasn’t communicated to Dilipda, which did not go down well with him,” said a senior party leader who was at the venue on Sunday evening to oversee the puja preparations.

On Sunday, another Trinamul turncoat Sabyasachi Dutta, looking after the erection of the pandal, Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta and Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee were present at the venue to inspect the preparations. Dutta is a known Roy acolyte and the other two are known for testy ties with the Ghosh lobby. “We are very excited about the event. The theme for our puja is an old zamindar house,” Chatterjee said.

She confirmed danseuse Dona Ganguly, wife of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, would perform there on October 22.