Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee is refusing to quit her post as the West Bengal chief minister despite her party losing the recent Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“I will not resign, I did not lose... officially, through the Election Commission, they (the BJP) can defeat us, but morally, we won the election,” she said at a news briefing, Reuters reported.
The election results on May 4 saw the BJP achieve a landslide victory in the 2026 election, winning 207 of the 294 Assembly seats.
The TMC, which ruled West Bengal for 15 years, fell from 215 to 80 seats, with Ms Mamata herself losing her Bhabanipur seat to the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who is set to be the new chief minister.
Ms Mamata said about 100 seats were “forcibly taken” from the TMC, and declared that the Election Commission was “biased”. She did not provide evidence to justify her accusations.
In response to Ms Mamata’s refusal to resign, Mr Suvendu Adhikaris said: “everything is mentioned in the constitution”, implying no further comment was needed.
Ms Mamata’s fiery reaction is not an isolated incident, as the election results have sparked a wave of violence across the state, with party offices being ransacked, reported the Times of India.
The TMC office in Siliguri was set on fire, with the TMC accusing the BJP of being behind the arson.
A TMC worker was allegedly hacked to death by BJP workers in Nanoor, Birbhum district, reported The Indian Express.
In another incident, a BJP worker was allegedly killed by people associated with the TMC while celebrating his party’s victory.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien also claimed that bulldozers brought in by BJP workers razed meat shops in Kolkata’s iconic New Market, reported The Hindu.
The TMC’s term expires on May 7, and the oath-taking ceremony for the new BJP administration is scheduled for May 9.
