Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday filed an election petition before the Calcutta High Court challenging the result of the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, where she was defeated by BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of 15,105 votes .
Banerjee reached the High Court unexpectedly on Tuesday afternoon to personally affirm the petition challenging the election outcome . She was accompanied by senior TMC leaders including Kunal Ghosh, Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen .
Allegations of irregularities
According to TMC MP and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who is representing her, the petition invokes the Representation of the People Act and seeks judicial scrutiny of the electoral process in Bhabanipur . The legal team is expected to formally press allegations of “corrupt practices and procedural lapses” during the vote count, though detailed particulars of the petition were not immediately made available .
Speaking to reporters, Kalyan Banerjee said there is “reasonable evidence of bias in the process,” pointing to the appointment of the chief electoral officer as the state’s chief secretary after the elections. “Whoever helped was rewarded by Suvendu Adhikari,” he alleged .
“Mamata Banerjee came to court to challenge the entire Bhabanipur election process,” Kalyan Banerjee told reporters after the filing .
Political context
The legal challenge comes more than a month after the results of the 2026 Assembly election, in which the BJP secured a resounding victory across the state, ending the TMC’s 15-year rule . Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Banerjee in the Bhabanipur seat, was subsequently sworn in as West Bengal’s first BJP Chief Minister .
Following the election results, Banerjee had held a press conference at her Kalighat residence, alleging that the polls were “rigged” after the deletion of “a few million names” during the special intensive revision of the electoral roll .
A pattern of legal challenges
This is not the first time Banerjee has challenged an election result in court. In the 2021 Assembly election, she had filed a similar petition after losing to Adhikari in Nandigram by 1,956 votes . In that petition, the TMC chief accused Adhikari of committing corrupt practices under Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, including “bribery, undue influence, spreading enmity,” and claimed discrepancies in the counting process .
That case was filed on May 21, 2021. During the proceedings, Justice Kaushik Chanda recused himself from the bench and imposed a ₹5 lakh fine on Banerjee for “calculated psychological offensives and vilification adopted to seek recusal” . The matter is still pending before the High Court .
BJP’s response
Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shankar Ghosh dismissed Banerjee’s legal challenge as a “futile attempt,” noting that her petition against the 2021 Nandigram result is still unresolved. “She challenged the 2021 Nandigram results as well and moved court. Now that her party is facing oblivion, let her make another futile attempt,” he said .
Court hearing on parallel TMC crisis
Banerjee’s presence at the High Court coincided with a separate hearing challenging the recognition of rebel TMC MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly . TMC MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has alleged that constitutional provisions and assembly rules were violated during the process . The petition is expected to initiate legal proceedings over the Bhabanipur result, with the High Court likely to examine the grounds raised by Banerjee in her challenge .
