The Chief Minister of West Bengal and supremo of the Trinamool Congress Party, Ms Mamata Banerjee’s statement that she will not resign from her post despite a crushing defeat in the state assembly elections is completely unconstitutional, immoral, and undemocratic. Not only this, but her decision is also against her own political principles, because on one hand she is accusing the Election Commission of not functioning according to the Constitution, and on the other hand, she is herself doing something similar in parallel. The Constitution says that after losing the elections, the sitting Chief Minister of a state will resign from his/her post so that the leader of the party that has received a new mandate can become the new Chief Minister.
On this matter, the Constitution is completely clear that after election results are announced, the incumbent Chief Minister should make way for the new Chief Minister so that if the ruling party wins in the next elections, it must submit its resignation to the governor before the completion of the ongoing assembly term. However, the Governor can ask them to continue as caretaker Chief Minister until a new assembly is formed. The term of the West Bengal Assembly is ending on 7 May, and the Election Commission has already proposed forming a new assembly to the Governor. Therefore, Mamata ji holds her position only till this date; after that, the Governor has the option to dismiss her.
However, if the Governor wishes, he can ask her to resign even before that. In reality, Mamata ji has chosen this path only to keep her politics heated, which is damaging to the dignity of the country’s democracy. This is the first time in independent India that a Chief Minister, despite losing elections, is saying that he/she will not leave office. The people of India still have not forgotten the incident in the world’s largest transparent and accountable American democracy, when in 2020, despite losing elections, President Trump refused to leave office and instead sent his supporters into the Parliament building, claiming that the election results were incorrect and that he had not lost, alleging fraud in counting.
Mamata ji is also making similar allegations about the results declared on 4 May and is saying that the winning party, BJP, has conspired with the Election Commission to produce such results. She is saying that she has been defeated through conspiracy, in which out of a 294-member assembly, only 80 of her party’s MLAs have won, while 207 BJP candidates have become new MLAs. However, it should also be noted that in these elections, Mamata ji herself lost from the Bhabanipur seat in Kolkata by more than 15,000 votes to BJP candidate Shri Suvendu Adhikari.
This gives the impression that Mamata ji is moving away from constitutional norms towards anarchy. Her statement, “I have not lost, I will not resign, there is no question of going to Raj Bhavan to resign; BJP and the Election Commission have played a dirty game together in these elections and forcibly looted votes,” indicates her intentions. If she wants to take this fight to the streets, the Indian Constitution fully allows her to carry out a peaceful and non-violent movement. However, she should keep in mind that she is also fighting against the Election Commission in the Supreme Court, and the Court has reserved its decision on the constitutionality of the Commission’s intensive revision of voter lists.
In this revision, 91 lakh voters in Bengal have had their names removed, and among them, 27 lakh citizens are said to possess valid documents required by the Commission. On the order of the Supreme Court, 19 tribunals have been formed in the state to verify these voters, but these tribunals could not hear the cases before voting. Among these 27 lakh voters, some even came with Supreme Court orders to become voters, then contested elections and won. One such example is Congress candidate Motab Sheikh from the Farakka constituency, who won the election.
Voting in this constituency took place in the first phase on 23 April. Mr. Sheikh filed his nomination on 6 April, the last day for filing nominations. Therefore, Mamata ji’s fight against the Election Commission should legally be fought in court. If she takes this fight to the streets, given the situation in Bengal, there is a risk of violence, because post-election violence in West Bengal is not new. However, Mamata ji is saying that her party did not only fight elections against the BJP but also against the Election Commission, which she claims was working for the BJP.
In India’s democracy, such allegations against the Election Commission by a political party are also happening for the first time. But Mamata ji should also remember that former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi, who imposed Emergency in 1975, accepted the result of the 1977 Lok Sabha elections and resigned from her post, even though she herself lost from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh. Therefore, Mamata ji should in any case uphold the dignity of India’s democracy above everything else.
