Mamata rejects defeat, claims votes ‘Stolen’

Dhaka watches the result with cautious eye, says bilateral ties will remain unaffected

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a blistering attack on India’s Election Commission, the central government and the judiciary following her party’s crushing defeat in the state assembly elections.

Meanwhile, across the border, Bangladeshi political parties reacted with a mix of curiosity and concern.

“We did not lose. They looted the votes,” Banerjee told reporters at a press conference in Kalighat, a day after results handed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a landslide victory.

“If we had lost fairly, I would have had no complaints. Winning and losing is part of politics. But that is not what happened here.”

Monday’s results showed the BJP winning 207 of West Bengal’s 293 assembly seats, while Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) was reduced to just 80 — a dramatic reversal for a party that had governed the state for nearly 15 years.

In a symbolic blow, Banerjee herself lost her Bhawanipore seat to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by more than 15,000 votes.

Speaking alongside TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, she alleged BJP workers had entered counting centres and disrupted the process.

“I was leading by 13,000 votes. I was supposed to get more than 32,000.

They entered the counting centres with central forces and smashed everything,” she said, adding that her motorcade was blocked near Jagubazar when she attempted to intervene.

“The Election Commission has created a dark chapter here.

The Commission became the villain. It looted the people’s rights,” she said, also alleging collusion between the BJP, the Commission, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister.

Banerjee ruled out stepping down as chief minister despite the defeat.

“Why should I resign? We did not lose. Votes were forcibly stolen. Where does the question of resignation arise?” she said.

She added that she now considered herself “a free bird” and an ordinary citizen. “I have been in office for a long time and tolerated a great deal. But now I am free. I will fight every injustice.

I am a street person — I was on the streets before, and I will remain on the streets,” she said.

However, across the border in Bangladesh, political parties, analysts and officials have been closely monitoring the results — particularly the implications of a BJP government in West Bengal for long-standing bilateral issues.

Key concerns include the Teesta River water-sharing dispute, border management, and pushbacks at the frontier — areas in which the West Bengal state government has historically played a significant role.

Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaid sought to reassure observers.

“Whoever comes to power in West Bengal will have no impact on Bangladesh’s relationship,” she said, adding that unresolved issues would be addressed through dialogue regardless of which government was in office in New Delhi or Kolkata.

“Whatever government is in power in India, the issues remain. We must deal with them.”
Bangladeshi political parties offered more nuanced responses.

The National Citizens Party (NCP) spokesperson Asif Mahmud expressed unease over remarks made by some Indian leaders about Bangladesh during the campaign.

“We had been observing from the outset. We saw in the Indian media itself that the BJP was accused of using undemocratic means to defeat Trinamool — including targeting voter rolls. What they did did not appear democratic,” he said, warning such rhetoric could have consequences within Bangladesh.

Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar said he did not expect the results to significantly influence Bangladeshi politics or embolden domestic hardliners, but voiced concern over what he described as majoritarian trends in India.

“Their state ideology is secularism, yet they themselves do not uphold it. The oppression of Muslims is there for all to see,” he said.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, senior joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and political adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister, struck a more diplomatic tone.

“The West Bengal election is entirely India’s internal matter and the people there have exercised their democratic right through the vote,” he said.

“As the closest neighbour, the relationship between the two countries is extremely important. Whoever is in power, we believe ties will move forward and both peoples will benefit.”

Mujahidul Islam Selim of the Communist Party of Bangladesh offered a structural critique. “

A communal force has come to power in West Bengal, and it is also true that similar communal forces exist in Bangladesh,” he said.

“Whoever is in power there, the crisis will not be resolved because they are all vehicles of bourgeois and corporate power.

But I believe ordinary people in both countries will advance society on the basis of democracy and secularism.”

The BJP’s rise in West Bengal is being closely watched in Dhaka because the state shares a long border with Bangladesh and the two are bound by deep cultural, economic and historical ties.

A BJP-governed West Bengal, aligned with the central government in New Delhi, could shift the political dynamics around issues that Banerjee had previously mediated — most notably the Teesta water-sharing agreement, which she had blocked for years.

Whether this becomes an opportunity for progress or leads to further complications remains an open question for policymakers in Bangladesh.