Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who lost Bengal to BJP yesterday after three consecutive terms in power, has refused to tender her resignation, saying she has not lost the election and the mandate the BJP got is “looted”.
“I have not lost, so I will not go to Raj Bhavan. I will not tender resignation,” she told reporters at a press conference today.
Banerjee has already alleged that 100 seats have been stolen in this election. Today, she accused the government and the Election Commission being complicit.
“This is not how democracy works. when judiciary is not there. When Election Commission is biased and the government wants one party rule, a wrong message is going to the world,” she said.
Putting the onus on the Election Commission today, she accused the poll body of playing “nasty games”. The real rival, she said, was the poll panel and not the BJP.
Accusing the government of “direct interference”, she said, “This is how they stole elections from Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar and now Bengal”.
The 71-year-old also said she was assaulted at a polling station. “I was kicked in the belly and back. The CCTV was off. I was pushed out of the counting station. As a woman I was misbehaved with,” she said.
“If Central forces can behave like this. I have nothing to say. I have seen former BJP governments at the Centre. But nothing like this,” she said.
Banerjee refused to reveal her party’s strategy for the coming days, but said the leaders of INDIA bloc have contacted her and she has their backing.
She however, said her party will form a fact-finding committee with five MPs and others to go to places where the Trinamool is being attacked and party offices which have been vandalised.