Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she has offered to resign from the post of West Bengal chief minister, but her party had rejected it.
In her first press conference since the results were announced on Thursday, she said, “I said at the beginning of the meeting that I don’t want to continue as the Chief Minister. I trying hard to convince my party.”
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee: I told at the beginning of the meeting that I don’t want to continue as the Chief Minister. pic.twitter.com/KZvH9oyTec
— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2019
Banerjee also attributed her poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls to the ‘division’ of Hindu-Muslims votes, saying, “An emergency situation was created. Hindu-Muslim division was done and votes were divided. We complained to the Election Commission of India (EC) but nothing was looked into.”
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee: The central forces worked against us. An emergency situation was created. Hindu-Muslim division was done and votes were divided. We complained to the EC but nothing was looked into. pic.twitter.com/FSksMoXsBq
— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2019
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In West Bengal, the TMC won 22 out of 42 seats, while the BJP raised its tally from two seats in 2014 to 18 this year. The Congress won only two seats in the eastern state.
She claimed that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were tampered with during the Lok Sabha elections. “I have doubts of EVM manipulation, especially seats where we have lost with less than 1 lakh vote margin,” she said.