- CM accuses Election Commission of bias.
- Banerjee’s tenure as CM ends on Thursday.
- The Commission calls the CM’s allegations ‘baseless’.
An Indian chief minister who was swept from power by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in state elections said on Tuesday that she had “not been defeated” and would not resign, in an unprecedented political U-turn.
Modi’s BJP defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been in power in West Bengal state since 2011, securing more than two-thirds of the 294 seats when votes were counted on Monday.
The BJP has never ruled West Bengal, a populous eastern state bordering Bangladesh, and its victory is considered a political milestone as the party now controls almost every state in eastern India.
The TMC tally fell to 80 seats from its earlier 215, with Banerjee herself losing her seat.
Banerjee said around 100 seats were “forcefully taken” from her party, which also had to contend with a “biased” Election Commission. She did not support her accusation with evidence.
“I will not resign, I have not lost… officially, through the Election Commission, they (BJP) can defeat us, but morally we won the election,” she told a news briefing.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal termed the allegations as “baseless”. BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee, said that “everything is mentioned in the constitution”.
Banerjee can appeal the result in court
According to the Indian constitution, the state’s governor can demand Banerjee’s resignation or wait for her term to expire, after which newly elected lawmakers will be sworn in and the process of forming a new government will begin.
Banerjee’s term is set to end on Thursday.
A defeated candidate in an Indian state election can challenge the result in court on the grounds of, among other things, corrupt practices, improper acceptance or rejection of nominations or votes, disqualification of candidates, or failure to comply with election laws that affected the result.
Banerjee did not say whether she would go to court.
Modi, his closest aide and home minister Amit Shah and several senior BJP leaders campaigned for weeks in the state, focusing on what they called illegal immigration from Bangladesh and the weak local economy under Banerjee.
