‘Make yourself a laughingstock’: BJP rebukes Mamata Banerjee for refusing to resign after West Bengal polls defeat

NEW DELHI: Challenging Mamata Banerjee’s “won’t resign” remarks, the Bharatiya Janata Party said she is free to approach the Supreme Court if the outgoing West Bengal chief minister alleges any irregularities. Banerjee accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP after the saffron party won the Bengal polls and refused to accept the verdict.“She has just made herself a laughingstock,” said BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar, adding that she could approach the Supreme Court over the poll results.BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra questioned the validity of the remarks, calling it an attack on “democracy and the constitution”.“This is worrying because in India’s democracy, there is a fact that there has never been a situation since independence where two parties have been entangled in this way. With great respect and dignity, when the chief minister or the prime minister fails, the losing party resigns and India has had a peaceful transfer of power for the past 75 years,” he said.“But today, Mamata Banerjee’s words and deeds, I must regret to say, have hurt this tradition in India. This is not an attack on the BJP; this is an attack on democracy. This is an attack on the Constitution of India, the Babasaheb Ambedkar Constitution. Yet, Mamata Banerjee says she has not failed and will not resign. This reflects a sense of entitlement and anarchy. It is a story of disorder and chaos.” He added. Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata of Babanipur, also reacted to her statement, saying, “Everything is mentioned in the Constitution. I don’t need to say much.”Mamata Banerjee refuses to accept Bengal poll results, TMC defeated by BJP, saffron party wins 207 seats. She said she would not resign as her party “did not lose the election” but it was an attempt by the BJP and the Election Commission to “defeat us”.“I will not resign, I did not lose, I will not go to Raj Bhavan… This question will not come up. No. Now, I would also like to say that we did not lose the election. This was their attempt to defeat us. Officially, through the Election Commission, they could defeat us, but morally, we won the election,” Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference in Kolkata.