Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rival Mamata Banerjee refused to resign as West Bengal’s chief minister a day after she was defeated by the ruling party in state elections, alleging the polls were manipulated.

“I haven’t lost,” Banerjee told reporters in Kolkata on Tuesday. She alleged irregularities during vote counting on Monday, a claim echoed by senior Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

They also accused Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party of using the poll body and federal forces to influence the outcome. The BJP dismissed the accusations.

“Their allegations are all false as it comes while they were losing. They did not complain earlier,” BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who contested against Banerjee, told reporters on Monday. A spokesperson for the Election Commission didn’t respond to text messages and calls.

The BJP secured a resounding victory in the eastern state, clinching the region that’s been one of the last few bastions dominated by opposition parties. BJP’s victory ends the 15-year rule of Banerjee, India’s highest-profile female politician, who was seen as the only opposition leader capable of mounting a serious challenge against Modi in the 2029 national elections.

Banerjee said she was forcefully removed from the counting center after she protested the violation, including eviction of her party’s counting agents. Political parties are allowed a representative to observe proceedings and flag any irregularities during counting of votes. She lost the election from her traditional Bhabanipur constituency to BJP’s Adhikari.

“More than 100 seats have been looted. The election commission is BJP’s commission,” Banerjee told reporters late on Monday. “I have complained to the authorities but they are not doing anything.”

West Bengal was the most fiercely-fought election among the four states and a federally-administered region that went to polls in April. Elections took place after a large-scale voter roll revision removed nearly nine million voters, or almost 12% of West Bengal’s total electorate, from the list.

“People from the Muslim community, considered to be Mamata Banerjee’s backers, formed a large part of those excluded, raising questions about the intention behind the way the roll revision process was carried out,” Maidul Islam, professor of political science at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, said.

Opposition groups alleged that Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party used the exercise to target mainly poor and Muslim voters, while the poll body said it was to weed out fake voters and combat illegal migrants.

On Tuesday, Banerjee said several opposition leaders had called her to express solidarity, telling reporters that “the opposition stands together.”

After failing to win an absolute majority in 2024 national elections, Modi’s BJP has steadily expanded its presence beyond its traditional strongholds of northern and western India, running campaigns that blended religious messaging with promises of economic development. Before West Bengal, the party won Maharashtra and Haryana, retained Bihar with allies, and took control of the national capital of Delhi, after more than two decades.

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