Calls WB election verdict a ‘conspiracy’
Alleging that the West Bengal assembly poll verdict was “not a people’s mandate but a conspiracy”, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday refused to resign as chief minister, opening up a constitutional grey zone and a political confrontation in the state.
A day after the BJP sealed a landslide victory with 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress’s uninterrupted 15-year rule, Banerjee dismissed the outcome as “engineered” and asserted that her party was fighting the Election Commission, not the BJP. TMC could only manage 80 seats.
“Why should I step down? We have not lost. The mandate has been looted. Where does the question of resignation arise?” she said, doubling down on her refusal to vacate the office.
“The question of my resignation does not arise, as we were defeated not by a public mandate but by a conspiracy…I did not lose, I will not go to Lok Bhavan,” she asserted at a packed press conference, her tone oscillating between grievance and combativeness.
Banerjee alleged large-scale irregularities in counting, claiming nearly 100 seats were “looted” and that the pace of counting was deliberately slowed to sap her party’s morale.
“We were not fighting the BJP; we were fighting the Election Commission, which was working for the BJP. I have never seen such an election in my entire political career,” she said.
Significantly, experts note that there is no precedent in India of a defeated chief minister refusing to resign after losing an assembly election. If Banerjee persists with her stance, it could mark an unprecedented moment in the evolution of India’s parliamentary democracy.
Banerjee, who rode to power that year on the crest of an anti-Left wave and fashioned herself as a street-fighter-turned-administrator, now appears to be returning to that agitational idiom.
BJP attacks Mamata over no-resignation stand
BJP on Tuesday attacked outgoing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over her statement that she would not resign despite her party’s defeat, calling the stand “anarchic” and against India’s democratic traditions.
The party described her refusal as “constitutional blasphemy” and accused her of undermining the principle of peaceful transfer of power.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said Banerjee’s stand is “concerning” as India has a long-standing tradition of peaceful transfer of power.
“This is both laughable and concerning. It is concerning because India’s democracy is known for its dignity and grace in the peaceful transfer of power.
“Since Independence, such a situation has never arisen where two parties get entangled in this manner during a transition. Over the last 75 years, India has earned global recognition for this remarkable democratic tradition.
“But what Mamata Banerjee has said and done today is deeply unfortunate. This is an attack on a long-standing democratic convention. It is not an attack on the BJP, but an attack on democracy and the Constitution,” he told reporters.
Citing examples from recent Assembly elections, the BJP MP from Puri said leaders in other states followed established norms after electoral outcomes.
He asserted that no individual is indispensable in a democracy and that the will of the people is paramount.