Mamata Banerjee

The outgoing Chief Minister has refused to resign. Short on numbers, Banerjee has accused the BJP of ‘rigging’ and claimed that the TMC has won the elections ‘morally’.

Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to accept Bengal’s electoral verdict exposes the very authoritarianism and contempt for constitutional morality that the Congress-Left ecosystem has long accused the BJP of embodying.

Several foreign media publications covered the BJP’s thumping victory, though not without peddling propaganda about the victorious party’s ‘Hindu nationalist’ ideology, ‘Muslim minority under threat’ bogey and falsehoods about the pre-poll SIR exercise.

It is the BJP’s candidate selection and focus on real issues that propelled the party to 206 seats for its maiden triumph. BJP’s women candidates brought their own grassroots stories, carried pain and yearning to bring change that resonated with Bengali voters.

Rahul Gandhi, Sayema, Arfa Khanum Sherwani and Sanjay Singh blamed the SIR after the results. Yet the top deletion seats tell a different story, with the TMC winning 13 out of the 20.