Trinamool Congress chairperson and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday (June 16, 2026) filed an election petition before the Calcutta High Court, challenging the poll result of the Bhabanipur Assembly seat which she lost to BJP's Suvendu Adhikari.
Mr. Adhikari, now the first BJP Chief Minister of West Bengal, defeated Ms. Banerjee by a margin of 15,105 votes from Bhabanipur. The former Chief Minister was accompanied by Trinamool Congress leaders Dola Sen and Kunal Ghosh during her visit to the High Court.
“Mamata Banerjee has challenged the election (for Bhabanipur). She challenged the way election took place. She urged (the court) to look into the illegalities that took place. This election was not conducted in a proper way. She has filed a petition against Suvendu Adhikari,” Trinamool Congress leader and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee told media persons outside the High Court premises.
Mr. Banerjee added that the person who was the Returning Officer (RO) for Nandigram in the 2021 election, where Ms. Banerjee was defeated by Mr. Adhikari, was brought to Bhabanipur as RO this time. “Later, he was made Deputy Secretary of the Chief Minister. The Chief Electoral Officer was immediately made the Chief Secretary after the elections. There are so many allegations. Reasonable bias is there,” Mr. Banerjee said.
Ms. Banerjee had represented Bhabanipur Assembly seat from 2011 to 2026, during her tenure as Chief Minister.
The votes for the West Bengal Assembly elections 2026 were counted on May 4. Ms. Banerjee had alleged electoral malpractices during the counting of votes. As votes were being counted at Sakhawat Memorial School in South Kolkata, Ms. Banerjee left the counting centre in the evening, with several rounds of counting remaining. Alleging that the entire process was being done in a ‘one-sided’ manner, she had also claimed that she was physically attacked during the counting.
Ms. Banerjee had filed a similar petition in 2021 when she lost to Mr. Adhikari from Nandigram by a margin of 1,956 votes. The Trinamool Congress chairperson had alleged electoral malpractices both in Nandigram in 2021 and in Bhabanipur in 2026.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari won from Bhabanipur as well as Nandigram in the 2026 polls, but resigned from Nandigram. He had won Nandigram by defeating Trinamool Congress candidate Pabitra Kar by 9,665 votes.
With Ms. Banerjee not getting elected to the State Assembly, a majority of her party MLAs have decided to form a separate bloc supporting expelled Trinamool Congress leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. The Trinamool Congress is facing a rebellion of Lok Sabha MPs with 20 of 28 MPs deciding to merge with a little know Nationalist Citizens Party of India and support the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
Published - June 16, 2026 03:48 pm IST
