- CM accuses election commission of bias.
- Banerjee’s tenure as CM will end on Thursday.
- The Commission considers CM’s accusations to be “baseless”.
An Indian prime minister who was ousted 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 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 that borders Bangladesh, and its victory is considered a political milestone as the party now controls almost all of India’s eastern states.
The TMC’s tally fell to 80 seats from the previous 215, with Banerjee herself losing her seat.
Banerjee said around 100 seats were “forcibly snatched away” from her party, which also had to deal with a “biased” Election Commission. She did not back up her accusation with evidence.
“I will not resign, I did not lose…officially, through the Election Commission, they (BJP) can defeat us, but morally we won the elections,” he said at a press conference.
West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal called the allegations “baseless”. BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee, said “everything is mentioned in the constitution”.
Banerjee can appeal the result in court
Under the Indian constitution, the state governor can demand Banerjee’s resignation or wait for her term to expire, after which newly elected lawmakers would be sworn in and the process of forming a new government would begin.
Banerjee’s term will end on Thursday.
A defeated candidate in an Indian state election can challenge the result in court on grounds including corrupt practices, improper acceptance or rejection of nominations or votes, disqualification of candidates, or failure to comply with electoral laws that affected the result.
Banerjee did not say whether she would go to court.
Modi, his close 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.
