Around 3 p.m. on Monday (May 4, 2026), as counting trends indicated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was heading towards a massive victory in West Bengal, a flustered Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was seen rushing towards a girls’ high school in south Kolkata, a counting centre for the Bhabanipur Assembly seat. Walking in, she raised suspicions of malpractice, claiming that the counting had abruptly stopped and that the vote numbers had remained stagnant for a long time.

Hours later, when her rival Suvendu Adhikari secured a marginal lead over her, the Trinamool Congress chairperson walked out of the counting venue. “It is an immoral victory,” she said, accusing the Election Commission of doing everything wrong.