Suvendu at flood-hit Ghatal, vows to enforce master plan with BJP win
The Statesman | 11 August 2025
Days after the visit of chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the flood-affected Ghatal in West Midnapore, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday led a scathing political charge against the ruling Trinamul Congress, accusing it of weaponising the long-pending Ghatal Master Plan as a mere electoral bait while abandoning the flood-prone region year after year.
Standing in ankle-deep water amid the marooned lanes of Ghatal town, Mr Adhikari marched with BJP workers from Hospital More to Old LIC More, meeting distressed residents and promising whatever support possible “within his limited capacity”. Later, addressing a street-corner meeting, he launched a blistering attack on both the state government’s inaction and the alleged tokenism of local MP and actor Dev, without naming him directly.
“He comes to Ghatal and says ‘I love you’. I come to stand by you,” Adhikari quipped, a remark clearly aimed at Dev alias Deepak Adhikari, the sitting TMC MP from Ghatal.
The BJP leader announced a three-day special relief camp to be held ahead of Independence Day and said he would return to Ghatal on 15 August. “I will hoist the Tricolour in the flood-affected areas, serve food to everyone, and eat with you,” he said, turning the national day into a platform for political mobilisation.
Reigniting the long-forgotten Ghatal Master Plan—a Rs 1,200-crore flood-control blueprint originally designed by the Damodar Valley Corporation—Mr Adhikari gave a clear electoral pitch for the 2026 Assembly elections:
“If the BJP forms the government in Bengal, the Ghatal Master Plan will be implemented. Narendra Modi is the big guarantor. I, Suvendu Adhikari, am your small guarantor. I give you my word.”
The Ghatal Master Plan has become a recurring trope in the region’s political discourse, particularly every monsoon when the Shilabati river overflows, inundating thousands of homes, farmland, and roads. Locals say it has remained stalled despite repeated promises by both the state and Centre.
Earlier in the day, Adhikari visited several submerged areas, interacted with residents stranded by floodwaters, and criticised what he called the TMC’s “criminal neglect” of Ghatal. “People have voted for them for years, and all they got was waterlogged misery. The TMC only remembers Ghatal when it’s time to seek votes,” he said.
Following his Ghatal visit, Adhikari returned to Kolkata to join the BJP’s Kanya Suraksha Yatra from Garia to Ranikuthi, continuing the party’s dual-pronged outreach campaign across urban and rural Bengal.