Mamata's refusal to resign sharpest indictment of 'rigging' by BJP, EC: TMC MP Sagarika Ghose

Sagarika's remarks came a day after Banerjee refused to resign as chief minister, alleging that the poll verdict was "not a people's mandate but a conspiracy".

New Delhi: TMC's Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose on Wednesday accused the Election Commission of "rigging" the West Bengal polls and said Mamata Banerjee's refusal to resign from as chief minister will stand as a "pointed indictment" of the act.

Her remarks came a day after Banerjee refused to resign as chief minister, alleging that the poll verdict was "not a people's mandate but a conspiracy".

Ghose quoted Banerjee "I haven't lost and I won't resign", and added, "The single sentence that will stand in history as the sharpest and most pointed indictment of the way the BJP-EC brazenly rigged the Bengal Election of 2026." A day after the BJP sealed a landslide victory with 207 seats in the 294-member assembly, ending the Trinamool Congress's uninterrupted 15-year rule, Banerjee dismissed the outcome as "engineered" and asserted that her party was fighting the Election Commission, not the BJP. The TMC could only manage 80 seats.

"Why should I step down? We have not lost. The mandate has been looted. Where does the question of resignation arise," she said, doubling down on her refusal to vacate the office.

Banerjee alleged large-scale irregularities in counting, claiming nearly 100 seats were "looted" and that the pace of counting was deliberately slowed to sap her party's morale.

The BJP, meanwhile, attacked Banerjee, calling her stand "anarchic" and against India's democratic traditions.