Was Thrown Out Of Counting Station, Alleges TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee; Refuses To Resign As West Bengal CM

Kolkata: A day after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was routed in West Bengal, its chief Mamata Banerjee said that she will strengthen the INDIA bloc, and that she is now a free bird.

Refusing to resign as Chief Minister, she said, "I do not have a chair now, I am a free bird. In these 15 years, I have not taken one paisa salary. I gave my full life for people's service, I have to do some work."

"We were leading on 200 seats when media began playing that BJP is winning. Then, CRPF forces began threatening and torturing our people, committing limitless atrocities. I think "they" should feel ashamed," she also said, adding that the TMC didn't lose, but was made to lose by the combined might of the ECI, the Centre and the Central forces.

She alleged that the BJP workers went inside the polling stations and started beating counting agents. "They started torturing all our people. They did not spare even the Scheduled Caste people among them, they did not even spare women," she alleged.

The Chief Minister also alleged that she had complained to the Returning Officer of the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency to stop counting of her seat till normalcy is restored.

"My official agents are not allowed, they kicked me in the back-side and belly, they manhandled and assaulted, and you cannot imagine what happened, as the CCTV was off. I said, unless the normalcy is restored, I will sit here," she further alleged.

She alleged that she was thrown out of the counting station. "We will fight this battle. This way, they won Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar and other states," she added.

She said the party condemns the villain, the Election Commission of India. "They hijacked the counting centre, and this is most unfortunate," she added.

The TMC chief, while refusing to give details of the INDIA bloc strategy, revealed that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav was coming to meet her on Wednesday.

She also said that she has seen the governments of Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, but never seen such atrocities by the Centre. "Our fight was not with the BJP; it was with the Election Commission of India. If EVM machines are captured... Why they tortured the people," she added.

"We did not lose the election; it is their forceful attempt to defeat us," she further alleged. Mamata lost to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, while her party was wiped out in the eastern state.