Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections which gave a sweeping mandate in favour of the saffron party. She said that she would set up 10-member fact-finding committee to visit areas hit by post-poll violence in the state.The BJP won 207 seats, bringing an end to the TMC’s 15-year rule and decisively altering the state’s political and ideological landscape.“We fought against the entire machinery, with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister also involved, there was direct interference. They deleted 90 lakh names from the voter list. When we approached the court, 32 lakh names were restored. But do you know that another seven lakh names, which were submitted together, were also included later, and nobody is aware of that? This shows how such dirty, nasty, and mischievous games were played,” she said.She accused the central forces of “behaving like goons” and accused them of physically assaulting her during the vote counting process on May 4.“After first round of counting, they started saying that BJP is getting 195-200. You didn’t wait for the final result. You didn’t even wait for 5-6 rounds. After that campaign with the press media, BJP went inside the polling station and they started beating the people, counting agents. When I came to know that all counting agents are withdrawn, I was leading by about 30,000 and about 5 rounds were left. We should have got more than 32,000,” she added.“Then the BJP candidate went inside along with 200 CRPF personnel and 200 outside goons, then they beat up our people. Even women were not spared and they snatched away all forms. When I came to know, I went there. They stopped my car but I took another route. When I entered, CRPF told me that I was not allowed to go. I said that I am a candidate…Then I complained to the RO that counting should be stopped immediately until normalcy is restored. I saw the DEO. I know that he gave a message to someone 15 days ago that ‘counting mein khel hoga’…I went inside for a few minutes. They kicked me in my belly, backside and manhandled and assaulted me. That time CCTV was off,” she said.She further said that she would now work towards strengthening INDIA bloc, adding that opposition leaders like “Sonia ji, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren rang me up. 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,” she said.“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,” she added.BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, further strengthening its historic mandate after clinching the Rajarhat–New Town constituency through a recount on Tuesday. The revised tally added a final dramatic turn to an already landmark election verdict.The result followed Monday’s sweeping mandate in which the BJP crossed the two-thirds majority mark, ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year rule and paving the way for the party’s first government in the state.The verdict also carried strong symbolic significance, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee losing the high-profile Bhabanipur seat to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.With its tally now firmly above the majority mark of 148, the BJP has further consolidated its dominant position in the Assembly, underlining the scale of its electoral triump.
