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‘100 seats looted’: Mamata vows to fight from streets, says victory ‘morally ours’
Banerjee, 71, underlined that she had the support of the country’s top Opposition leaders and that her party would be back on its feet.
Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday declared that she will not go to the governor to hand over her resignation following the election verdict, insisting that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spectacular victory was not a people’s mandate but an outcome of a conspiracy by the BJP, Election Commission of India and central forces.
“If we have not lost the election, then why should I go to Raj Bhawan? I am not taking oath. And, why do I have to resign? We didn’t lose. It is their forceful attempt to defeat us. One hundred of our seats were looted. Our fight was not against BIP but against the EC,” Banerjee told reporters at her Kalighat residence after the BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Bengal assembly; the TMC won just 80.
To be sure, the Bengal assembly’s term ends on May 7. Since the BJP plans to hold the oath-taking ceremony on May 9, it is unclear whether the governor will ask her to continue as caretaker chief minister until her successor is in place.
“Officially, the EC can defeat us, but morally, we won the election. 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, underlined that she had the support of the country’s top Opposition leaders and that her party would be back on 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 centres. This is most unfortunate. I wouldn’t mind if they had won normally. They captured the counting centres when we were ahead by 200 seats. They did not allow the media inside. The central forces assaulted our counting agents and drove them out,” Banerjee said.
“I have seen Central governments run by Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I K Gujral, and HD Deve Gowda. I never saw something like this. Can a party at the Centre behave in this manner? When the judiciary is not here, when the EC is biased, when the government wants one-party rule, then what can people do? A wrong message is going to the world,” she added.
Banerjee accused the ECI and the authorities of a crackdown targeting the TMC ahead of the elections.
“Two days before the elections, they started arresting our people. They started changing all police officers and civil servants, even IAS and IPS officers. They selected people from their party,” she said.
“First, they deleted nine million names from the voter list. We went to court, and 3.2 million names were added. They played a dirty, nasty, mischievous game. I never saw a dirtier election,” she added.
Banerjee said top leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, had expressed solidarity with her party.
“They said, ‘we are totally with you.’ They will all come here. Our solidarity will be stronger in the coming days. I will strengthen the INDIA team as a small person. I don’t have a chair anymore. I am a commoner now, a free bird. I give my full life for the service of the people,” said Banerjee.
Banerjee alleged that she was kicked, assaulted and abused during the counting after media reports claimed that the BJP was leading.
“As the media started saying that the BJP was winning in the first and second rounds of counting, BJP workers went inside the counting centres and started beating up our people. Even women were not spared. They stopped my car in Jagubazar. When I reached the counting centre (for the Bhabanipur seat), the CRPF stopped me. I wrote to the returning officer and said counting must be stopped until normalcy is restored,” she said.
“They shoved me out of the counting station. I was kicked and abused. I feel insulted not just as a woman but as a human being. I can imagine what must be happening to our other candidates. The party is with them. Hundreds of our supporters are being attacked. Our offices are being vandalised. Even members of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities are not being spared,” Banerjee said.
“We will set up 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 have to face the same battle. History repeats itself.”
Responding to her allegation, West Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal said no complaint regarding the alleged assault on Mamata Banerjee was received. “If anyone was assaulted, as alleged, a complaint would have been filed. I received no such complaint,” Agarwal said.
Bengal BJP unit president Samik Bhattacharya said his party workers were attacked in several districts on Tuesday.
“Nobody from any party should indulge in violence. The police must take action against everyone, regardless of their political background. The polls were free of violence. This is what the BJP wants,” he said.
