Outgoing West Bengal chief minister and AITC supremo Mamata Banerjee seems to have resigned to the resounding loss to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the possibility of not coming back to power in the state for quite some time. Tuesday Banerjee signaled a move to national politics and more actively involvement with the INDI alliance.
Seeking a fourth straight term in the West Bengal elections 2026, Mamata Banerjee’s reign of 15 years came to an abrupt end as the saffron outfit not just defeated her TMC, but routed the party, clocking 206 seats against her meagre 81. In the 2021 West Bengal elections, the BJP had bagged just 77 in an assembly of 294.
The seats tally this time, is a mirror image of last time.
“Sonia ji, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren rang me up,” Banerjee said Tuesday, adding, “ All the allies of INDIA Alliance told me that they are totally and absolutely with me.”
“I think our solidarity will be united and strong for the next days. Akhilesh requested me if he can come today itself but I told him to come tomorrow. So, he will come tomorrow. One by one everyone will come.”
“My target is very clear. I will strengthen the INDIA team, just like a small person. I don’t have any chair now, so I am a commoner. So, you cannot tell me that I am using your chair. I am now a free bird. I gave my entire life in service to the people, even in these 15 years I have not withdrawn one paisa of pension. I am not taking one paisa of salary also. But now, I am a free bird. So, I have to do some work, that I will manage to do.”
Flanked by Abhishek Banerjee, among others, Banerjee said the party had decided to institute a fact-finding committee to look into complaints of post-poll violence against TMC workers.
“We have decided to set up a fact-finding committee with 10 members, along with 5 MPs and others. They will visit all the tortured areas. They even captured all of our party offices. They even tried to capture the TMC Headquarters yesterday. Stones were pelted at Abhishek’s office…You cannot torture like this,” Mamata said in a last bid effort to soften the hurt of loss.
“If you torture people, please understand when you are not in power in Centre, you will have to face the same battle. History will repeat itself. What happened in Bengal is black history. We condemn the attitude of the villain election commission, biased…”