Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced that she will not go to the governor to hand over her resignation after the electoral verdict, insisting that the stunning victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not a popular mandate but the result of a conspiracy by the BJP, the Election Commission of India and the central powers.
“If we do not lose the elections, why should I go to Raj Bhawan? I will not take oath. And why should I resign? We did not lose. It is their strong attempt to defeat us. They have looted a hundred of our seats. Our fight was not against BIP but against the EC,” Banerjee told reporters at her residence in Kalighat after the BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Bengal Assembly. TMC won only 80.
It is certain that the term of the Bengal Assembly ends on May 7. As the BJP plans to hold the swearing-in ceremony on May 9, it is unclear whether the governor will ask her to continue as interim chief minister until her successor takes office.
“Officially, the EC can defeat us, but morally, we won the elections. I can go anywhere now. I can fight anywhere. I was from the street, and I will stay on the street,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee (71 years old) confirmed that she has the support of the country’s senior opposition leaders and that her party will return to its feet.
“We will bounce back. This is a brutal murder of democracy. This is how they won in Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar and other states. They hijacked the counting stations. This is very unfortunate. I don’t mind if they win normally. They captured the counting stations when we were 200 seats ahead. They did not allow the media to enter. The central forces attacked our counting agents and took them out,” Banerjee said.
“I have seen Central governments run by Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, AK Gujral and HD Deve Gowda. I have never seen anything like this. Can a party at the Center behave this way? When the judiciary is not there, when the EC is biased, when the government wants one-party rule, what can people do? The wrong message will go out to the world,” she added.
Banerjee accused the Independent Electoral Commission and the authorities of launching a crackdown on the TMC before the elections.
“Two days before the elections, they started arresting our people. They started replacing all police officers and civil servants, even IAS and IPS officers. They chose people from their party,” she said.
She added: “First, they deleted nine million names from the voter list. We went to court, and they added 3.2 million names. They played a dirty, bad, harmful game. I have never seen an election dirtier than that.”
Banerjee said senior leaders of the opposition India Bloc, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, expressed solidarity with her party.
“They said, ‘We’re totally with you.’ They will all come here. Our solidarity will be stronger in the coming days. I will be promoting Team India as a junior. I no longer have a chair. I am now a commoner, a free bird. “I am giving my entire life to serve people,” Banerjee said.
Banerjee alleged that she was kicked, assaulted and abused during the counting process after media reports claimed that the BJP was in the lead.
“While the media started saying that the BJP was winning in the first and second round of counting, BJP workers entered the counting centers and started beating our people. Even the women were not spared. They stopped my car at Jagobazar. When I reached the counting center (for Bhabanipur seat), the CRPF stopped me. I wrote to the returning officer and said that the counting should be stopped until normalcy is restored,” she said.
“They threw me out of the counting station. I was kicked and abused. I feel humiliated not just as a woman, but as a human being. I can imagine what must happen to our other candidates. The party is with them. Hundreds of our supporters are being attacked. Our offices are being vandalized. Even members of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribal communities are not spared,” Banerjee said.
“We will form a fact-finding committee comprising five MPs and other leaders. They will visit all our party offices, our headquarters and Abhishek’s office where stones were pelted. You cannot start torturing us like this. If you do, you will have to face the same battle. History repeats itself.”
Responding to her allegations, West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal said that no complaint had been received regarding the alleged assault on Mamata Banerjee. “If anyone is assaulted, as alleged, a complaint will be lodged. I have not received such a complaint,” Agarwal said.
Samik Bhattacharya, president of the BJP’s Bengal unit, said his party workers were attacked in several areas on Tuesday.
“No one from any party should indulge in violence. Police should take action against everyone, irrespective of their political background. The polls were free of violence. This is what the BJP wants,” he said.
