Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, will not attend a scheduled meeting on Friday in Jalpaiguri where eight persons died in a flash flood on Bijoya Dashami, prompting Trinamul to claim that the bridge tragedy in Gujarat had left the BJP in no position to criticise the Bengal regime.

After the deaths in Jalpaiguri’s Malbazar, the Bengal BJP had drawn up plans to go after the ruling Trinamul, especially chief minister Mamata Banerjee, holding the state administration responsible for the loss of lives. Suvendu's visit to Malbazar, following which he was to tour different parts of the state, was planned as part of that strategy.

“The world has seen what happened in Morbi (in Gujarat where 135 people died in the bridge collapse). Do they have the gall to criticise our chief minister?” said Mahua Gope, the Jalpaiguri Trinamul president.

According to her, Suvendu may have decided to cancel the programme due to some other factors as well, like the Centre’s “apathy towards the victims”.

After the flash flood, both the state and the Centre had announced compensation for the eight families and also for the injured persons.

Mamata, in her first post-Puja tour outside Calcutta, reached Malbazar in the third week of October, met the affected families and offered jobs to each family and also to seven others who had suffered injuries.

“The leader of the Opposition had simply planned to do politics over the unfortunate incident. But as the chief minister has done everything that was possible to stand by the bereaved families, the BJP leaders seem to have understood that such tactics won’t work and that’s why he hasn’t come,” Gope said.

The Bengal BJP appeared defensive as the Trinamul ecosystem began asking why Adhikari cancelled his Malbazar visit.

“The programme has been postponed because he has some other engagements. He has visited north Bengal a number of times and will be in the region again to encourage our party leaders and supporters,” said Bapi Goswami, the Jalpaiguri BJP president.

Senior BJP functionaries also claimed that the programme had been postponed as the leadership was busy with the ensuing state-wide visit of the party’s observers that would begin from Siliguri on November 6.

“North Bengal has always been our focus. That is why our party observers, along with the state president and some other leaders, are commencing their state-wide tours from Siliguri on November 6. They will also hold meetings in Malda and Raiganj,” said a state secretary of the BJP.

The team, sources said, will have Sunil Bansal, a national general secretary of the party, Asha Lakra, the co-in-charge of the BJP in Bengal, and some others.

While the BJP officially defended Adhikari’s no-show, several raised questions in private. “No central minister or prominent leader of the state visited Malbazar. Now that Suvendu Adhikari has cancelled his visit, it can affect the party’s base. North Bengal is a region where we have managed to consolidate our support. People are asking whether the party is sincere about standing by them in this hour of crisis,” said a senior BJP functionary in Jalpaiguri.