KOLKATA — Mamata Banerjee rejected speculation that she would resign after her Trinamool Congress lost the West Bengal state assembly election, taking a defiant stance. “Why should I resign? We have not lost!” she said. “There is no question of stepping down.”
Banerjee met reporters on Tuesday afternoon at her home in Kalighat alongside Trinamool’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Senior party leaders Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Banerjee were also present.
Of 293 seats in the state assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 207, while Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress took 80, according to the results. The outcome prompted speculation in political circles that Banerjee would step down.
Brushing aside that speculation, Banerjee said, “I have been in the chair all these years, and I have endured a great deal. But now I am free, just an ordinary person. I will endure no more. I will fight against every injustice. I am a person of the streets — I came from the streets, and I will stay on the streets.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report