Election Commission rejects Trinamool Congress' request for recount in Nandigram

Following the West Bengal State Assembly Elections, the Election Commission has rejected the Trinamool Congress's appeal for a recount of votes at Nandigram. This constituency, which was one of the most central contests of the Elections, was where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had faced her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari.

The Returning Officer has said that the result will be officially declared after the VVPAT slips are tallied with the votes on the Electronic Voting Machines. After a day of constant ups and downs, the final results on Sunday evening indicated that the Chief Minister had lost to Adhikari by 1,736 votes.

Calling the counting process "fishy" and alleging malpractices, Mamata said she would approach the courts.

"Let the Nandigram people give whatever verdict they want, I accept that. Nandigram was a sacrifice that was needed in the larger victory. We have won the state," said the Chief Minister, whose party is heading for a stupendous victory in more than 200 seats. "But I will go to the court because I have heard there were some malpractices," she had said earlier.

Mamata's speech conceding the seat at Nandigram came at a time of utmost confusion, and when the Election Commission website was not being updated.

"Something is fishy about Nandigram, don't you think? A party wins nearly three-fourths of all the seats in the state and the Chief Minister loses her seat - something very fishy went on in Nandigram," senior Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien told NDTV.

Didi was trailing Suvendu Adhikari for the most part of the day when the counting was ongoing. TMC said that they had expected this and were waiting on votes from minority areas to be counted because that is when the "tables would be turned."

By later in the evening, Mamata pulled through the 10,000 plus gap and moved ahead, but eventually, Adhikari was declared the winner by a margin of a little over 1900 votes.

Mamata's victory in Bengal is a bittersweet one, with the loss at Nandigram. It was 10 years ago that Nandigram had given her the victory in the state.