Mamata Banerjee on Sunday launched yet another fierce offensive on the BJP government in Bengal, declaring that the massive mandate which propelled her former protégé Suvendu Adhikari to the chief minister’s chair was the product of a “deliberately engineered mockery of democracy”.
The Trinamool Congress chairperson and former chief minister went live on Facebook to challenge the BJP’s ascent to 207 seats — 208 after the Falta win on Sunday.
She claimed that structural manipulation by the Election Commission of India, coupled with brute administrative force, had overturned the popular will across Bengal in the 2026 Assembly elections.
“This dice was deliberately turned upside down in at least 150 seats,” Mamata alleged, her voice carrying the familiar cadence of the undying streetfighter.
“Trinamool was supposed to get 220 to 230 seats had there been truly fair elections.... We want the report of the EVMs. The highest echelons are watching. You have looted Bengal. Your Delhi will go,” she said.
She detailed what she described as a systematic, institutional dismantling of her party’s polling machinery on counting day. “Was this truly an election, or merely a mockery in the name of democracy?” she asked. “Nearly one crore names were removed (in the SIR). Rigging took place at the counting centres. BJP workers entered wearing central force uniforms. Our agents’ ID cards were snatched away. I, along with (other non-BJP) representatives, was removed from the counting centres,” she charged.
Targeting Suvendu without naming him, Mamata tore into the fortnight-old cabinet’s policy decisions. “Today, the protector has become the predator,” she alleged. “For the past 20 days (since the May 4 results), we have silently endured everything. Many people have been killed, and several have been forced to resign. Even the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is not being allowed to function properly,” she added.
Mamata accused the Suvendu government of repackaging old fiscal promises. “Old promises are now being repackaged in new bottles,” she claimed.
She linked local administrative friction to broader national dynamics, taking a sharp dig at the establishment’s priorities.
“Instead of gifting chocolates to Italy’s Prime Minister, they could have been given to our children,” she said. “They talk about saving fuel while travelling abroad. People are being advised not to buy gold or use cars.”
“Those who rise through opportunism should be allowed to drift away,” she said. “It is better for the party. Trinamool will bounce back....”
Indicating the Bengal BJP without naming anyone, she said: "If you go to Delhi tomorrow, you will understand that your position is unstable. We are waiting for that day.... I am not against the administration, but you are supposed to be the protectors of the law. If you violate the law, you will be subject to its jurisdiction."
She concluded with a direct call to resistance: “I will also see whether the Constitution is greater than the barrel of a gun.”
Kakoli quits post
Trinamool’s Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, one of Mamata’s oldest aides, resigned as the party’s North 24-Parganas unit chief, taking "moral responsibility" for the party's drubbing in her area in the Assembly polls, but coupled it with a sharp critique of the campaign strategy and leadership priorities. She criticised the undue reliance on poll consultant I-PAC over old loyalists, and indicated, without naming the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, that he was “way too busy for far too long” to hear out grievances from people like her.
