'I won't resign, we haven't lost': Mamata Banerjee cries foul after poll defeat, says 'votes were forcibly stolen'

Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she will not resign as West Bengal Chief Minister, asserting that she does not accept the election outcome as a legitimate defeat and will continue her political fight despite the setback.

She referred to the defeat as a "murder of democracy" and claimed that 100 seats were "forcibly taken," while addressing a press conference.

"No one can force me to resign; I will not go to the Raj Bhavan to tender my resignation," she said, adding that there is "no question of me resigning — we were defeated not by public mandate but by conspiracy." Her remarks come a day after the BJP swept the Bengal elections.

The 71-year-old also alleged that she was assaulted at a polling station in Bhabanipur. "I was kicked in the belly and back. The CCTV was off. I was pushed out of the counting station (dhakka marke nikala). As a woman, I was misbehaved with," she said.

Further sharpening her attack, she alleged that CAPF personnel behaved improperly. "Central force jawans behaved like goons outside counting centres," she said.

"This is not how democracy works. When judiciary is not there, when the Election Commission is biased and the government wants one-party rule, a wrong message is going to the world," she said.

She accused the ECI of playing "nasty games," adding that the real rival was the poll panel and not the BJP. "This is how they stole elections from Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar and now Bengal," she added.

Will form fact-finding committee

Banerjee said her party will form a fact-finding committee with five MPs and other leaders to visit places where Trinamool workers are being attacked and party offices vandalised.

Thanked INDIA bloc leaders

She also thanked INDIA bloc leaders, saying, "Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh, Hemant Soren, Tejashwi leaders called me," and added, "Akhilesh Yadav will come to meet me tomorrow."

The Trinamool Congress won 80 seats in the 294-member Assembly, while the BJP secured a sweeping 207-seat majority. Banerjee also lost her Bhabanipur seat, marking a significant personal and political setback.