Mamata Banerjee held a news conference on Tuesday to claim the Bengal election had been stolen from her and refused to resign.

She said her immediate goal was to “strengthen the INDIA team” now that she was a “free bird” without her “chair”, indicating she realised her refusal to resign was at best a symbolic move without practical significance, as constitutional experts too clarified.

The 71-year-old Trinamool chief alleged she was “kicked in the belly and the back”, with the CCTV off, when she visited the Bhabanipur counting centre on Monday — a charge denied by polling officials.

Mamata also claimed that counting fraud had robbed her of at least 100 seats.

“The question (of resignation) does not arise. This ‘defeat’ was not by a public mandate but a conspiracy… we did not lose,” she said at her Kalighat home in the evening.

“I will not go,” she said, asked whether she would go to Raj Bhavan to tender her resignation. “I did not lose…. They can take action as per constitutional norms.”

If she does not resign, governor R.N. Ravi has the constitutional powers to dismiss her.

Trinamool polled 2,60,13,377 votes (40.8 per cent share), which was 32,11,427 fewer than the BJP’s 2,92,24,804 votes (45.84 per cent). Over 27 lakh voters excluded for “logical discrepancies” could not vote because their appeals could not be heard in time, and 5.46 lakh voters had earlier been deleted during the post-enumeration hearings.

Mamata lost from Bhabanipur — which witnessed about 51,000 deletions — to Suvendu Adhikari by 15,015 votes.

Flanked by nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee and several other senior Trinamool leaders, Mamata accused the Election Commission and the central forces of large-scale malpractices during the counting to help
the BJP.

Mamata Banerjee held a news conference on Tuesday to claim the Bengal election had been stolen from her and refused to resign.

She said her immediate goal was to “strengthen the INDIA team” now that she was a “free bird” without her “chair”, indicating she realised her refusal to resign was at best a symbolic move without practical significance, as constitutional experts too clarified.

The 71-year-old Trinamool chief alleged she was “kicked in the belly and the back”, with the CCTV off, when she visited the Bhabanipur counting centre on Monday — a charge denied by polling officials.

Mamata also claimed that counting fraud had robbed her of at least 100 seats.

“The question (of resignation) does not arise. This ‘defeat’ was not by a public mandate but a conspiracy… we did not lose,” she said at her Kalighat home in the evening.

“I will not go,” she said, asked whether she would go to Raj Bhavan to tender her resignation. “I did not lose…. They can take action as per constitutional norms.”

If she does not resign, governor R.N. Ravi has the constitutional powers to dismiss her.

Trinamool polled 2,60,13,377 votes (40.8 per cent share), which was 32,11,427 fewer than the BJP’s 2,92,24,804 votes (45.84 per cent). Over 27 lakh voters excluded for “logical discrepancies” could not vote because their appeals could not be heard in time, and 5.46 lakh voters had earlier been deleted during the post-enumeration hearings.

Mamata lost from Bhabanipur — which witnessed about 51,000 deletions — to Suvendu Adhikari by 15,015 votes.

Flanked by nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee and several other senior Trinamool leaders, Mamata accused the Election Commission and the central forces of large-scale malpractices during the counting to helpthe BJP.