Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi introduced a two-hour voluntary powercut at Raj Bhavan as he wanted to share the experience of the citizens during load-shedding. But today at Nandan, a favourite hangout of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, he had to experience that hardship.

And it was not voluntary.

During his speech at the function organised to commemorate the centenary of Arora Film Corporation, a film producing company of Kolkata, power went off, leaving the Gandhi speechless for at least two minutes. And as employees of Nandan scurried to restore power, he resumed his speech, this time without the microphone.

The Nandan authorities heaved a sigh of relief as power came back minutes later.

There, however, were quite a few in the audience who smelt a rat in the sudden powercut. “It could have been foul play. The way power went out during his speech,” one of them quipped.

The Nandan authorities, however, said it was a mere accident. “It was a CESC cable fault and power was restored in five minutes. Do not read much into this,” Neelanjan Chattopadhyay, Director, Nandan, told The Indian Express.