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“We have not lost the elections,” Banerjee said. “We fought against all machinery where PM and HM are also involved. We were fighting villains, not BJP.”
The BJP won a landslide 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly, reducing the TMC to just 80 seats in a dramatic reversal from the 2021 election, when Banerjee had secured a resounding third term. The TMC supremo also lost her traditional Bhabanipur seat.
Banerjee repeatedly alleged that the Election Commission acted as “BJP’s agent” and accused central forces of intimidation, assault and interference during both polling and counting.
“They deleted 90 lakh names in the SIR voter list,” she alleged, referring to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. “I have never seen this type of election in my life. Even in 2004, I did not see this type of atrocities. These atrocities have crossed everything.”The TMC chief alleged that BJP workers, aided by central forces, attacked her party’s polling and counting agents across multiple districts.
“From Bhangar to Barasat, from Deganga to North Bengal, BJP started atrocities,” she said. “CRPF is gunda bahini. One hundred people who were winning — CRPF hit them.”
Banerjee also claimed she was physically manhandled while trying to reach a counting centre after reports of violence emerged.
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“I was leading by over 13,000 when BJP entered and started beating counting agents,” she said. “They first stopped my car at Jodubabur Bazar. CRPF did not allow me to go.”
“They kicked me in my belly, they kicked my backside. I was abused physically and manhandled,” she alleged.
The Bengal chief minister said opposition leaders across the INDIA bloc had called her after the results, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Hemant Soren.
“I am a commoner now because I don’t have any chair,” Banerjee said. “I am now a free bird. I gave my full life for service. I have not withdrawn any pension and I am not taking any salary.”
Despite the crushing defeat, Banerjee asserted that the TMC remained united and would continue its political fight.
“Party is solid and together,” she said. “We fought like a tiger and we will keep fighting. We will bounce back.”
The TMC has decided to form a 15-member fact-finding committee, including MPs and senior leaders, to investigate alleged violence and irregularities during polling and counting.
“We will let you know our strategy. We are taking some action,” Banerjee said.
Calling Monday “a black day in the history of Bengal”, Banerjee alleged that counting centres were “hijacked” and claimed the media was being controlled from Delhi.
“The wrong message is going to the world — that you cannot fight democratically,” she said. “Do you want one-party rule? No opposition?”
