West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, on May 4, hit out not only at PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah but also at authorities such as the Election Commission of India and the central forces following the BJP’s strong performance in the state Assembly elections. She accused the agencies of “looting” seats and said the TMC would bounce back.
“More than 100 seats were looted by the BJP. The Election Commission is the BJP’s commission. I complained to the CO and also to Manoj Agrawal, but they are not doing anything. Do you think this is a victory? It is an immoral victory, not a moral victory. Whatever the Election Commission has done, along with the central forces and the Prime Minister and Home Minister, is totally illegal. It is loot, loot, loot. We will bounce back,” she said.
Banerjee’s statement comes at a time when she is trailing by around 563 votes, having polled 53,369 votes against Suvendu Adhikari’s 53,932, according to the Election Commission of India’s data.
The reversal marks a dramatic shift in a contest where the TMC supremo had earlier built a commanding lead, only to see it steadily chipped away as the day progressed.
Banerjee had surged ahead by over 17,000 votes by the end of the seventh round, polling 32,822 votes against Adhikari’s 15,451, before the gap began narrowing in subsequent rounds.
Her lead dropped to 15,494 votes after the eighth round, slipped to 12,131 by the 10th, and further narrowed to 7,184 after 12 rounds.
By the 14th round, the margin had come down sharply to 3,830 votes, setting the stage for a tight finish.
