Three days after torrential rainfall pounded the city, flooded neighbourhoods, and left several dead, the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) engaged in a fresh war of words over the rainfall data cited by the Trinamool for the deadly downpour in the intervening night of September 22 and September 23.

At least nine people died by electrocution in Kolkata after extremely heavy rains lashed the city between Tuesday and Wednesday and left it severely waterlogged, leading to disruptions in public life and colossal damage to infrastructure and businesses days before Durga Puja festivities. 

On Wednesday, the social media handle of the BJP shared a post by Trinamool where the ruling dispensation had claimed that Kolkata received ‘overnight rainfall measuring 1,423.2mm across major neighbourhoods’. In the caption, the BJP took a dig at Trinamool leaders and attached a video of the State Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya saying the city witnessed 252mm of rainfall.

“In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. And BJP chooses ignorance, if not outright barefaced lies. The figure of 1,423.2 mm refers to the cumulative overnight rainfall across major neighbourhoods,” the Trinamool retorted online, linking a report by an English daily that cited the 1423.2mm rainfall figure.

On Thursday, the saffron party launched another offensive against Trinamool’s “public relations interns”, accusing their team of running a “PR circus” and taking the help of journalists to “cover up the blunder.”

“A rain gauge measures rainfall for a specific area. Kolkata received 251 mm of rain in 24 hours. When you combine rainfall data from multiple neighbourhoods, the total area increases. To get the actual rainfall, you have to average it. Adding readings from five rain gauges placed side by side does not make the rainfall five times more. Learn basics, you dumb,” the BJP’s social media post on Thursday reads.

In response, the Trinamool called the BJP’s IT cell “brain-dead”, “half-witted, “numbskulls,” and accused them of sneering at journalists and “hiring trolls and bots to spew venom round the clock.”

“For your edification, what Kolkata faced was not one pocket but the entire city under a relentless downpour, with cumulative readings from multiple areas showing how widespread and devastating the deluge was. That is why major dailies reported the consolidated figure,” Trinamool’s social media post on Thursday read.

The blunt exchange between the two parties on social media follows a long-drawn verbal feud between leaders of the two parties, with BJP leaders blaming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim for the deaths, and Trinamool leaders accusing the saffron party of politicising a calamity.

“Eleven people died and [the Chief Minister] is playing dandiya. Why should she partake in festivities? She is the guardian of the citizens, the administrative head. She should take a vow of silence,” Leader of Opposition of West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said on Thursday.

\Meanwhile, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Wednesday claimed that the ‘record-high’ rainfall experienced in one night between September 22 and 23 is ‘twenty percent of the annual rainfall’ usually recorded in the region.

“When Kolkata is experiencing a natural calamity in the form of unprecedented rainfall, [the Opposition] decided to play political games,” Mr Ghosh said.