Mamata Banerjee proposes to give up CM post

Kolkata: Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday broke her silence over her party’s drubbing at the hands of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and announced that she had offered to resign as West Bengal chief minister but was prevented from doing so by party leaders.

Addressing a press conference after reviewing the TMC’s below-expectation performance, Ms Banerjee accused the BJP of using money power, polarising people on religious lines to garner votes and questioned if some “sort of setting or foreign power” played a role in the saffron party’s success. “Now I will focus more on the party and devote more time to it,” she announced, claiming that she had completed all development work the state promised in the party manifesto.

She congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a sarcastic tone and dared the BJP to topple her government.