A day after suffering a major setback in the West Bengal Assembly elections, outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee struck a defiant tone on Tuesday, asserting that she “will not resign”, citing “large-scale irregularities” in the poll process.“I want to say that we didn’t lose the elections. It was not a people’s mandate but a conspiracy. Officially, through the Election Commission, they defeated us, but morally we won the elections,” Mamata said while addressing a press conference in Kolkata.The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief accused the EC of bias, alleging that the party’s real contest was not against the BJP but against the poll body. “We did not fight the BJP; we fought the EC, which worked for the saffron party,” she claimed.Mamata alleged that nearly 100 seats were “forcibly taken away”, raising questions over counting procedures and claiming that early trends were manipulated to demoralise TMC workers.She criticised what she described as the strategic deployment of national media during counting phases, suggesting it influenced public perception.While withholding the details of her party’s next steps, Mamata indicated that her party was preparing to move against the EC.“Our fight was not just against the BJP; we also had to contend with what we believe was a biased EC. We have decided our course of action regarding the EC and the mechanisms it has used, but we will not disclose our strategy right now. We will discuss it later,” Mamata said.Citing attacks on party offices and alleged attempts to capture key premises, including those linked to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, she warned against “intimidation and violence”. “If people are subjected to such harassment across party lines and communities, they may respond with equal resistance,” she cautioned, signalling a hardening political stance.Mamata expressed gratitude to leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc for their support, saying their outreach reinforced unity within the alliance.She specifically thanked Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Uddhav Thackeray for calling her up and extending their support. Mamata said she now felt like a “free bird”, and emphasised her commitment to working towards strengthening the alliance. She said she would contribute to the bloc’s efforts with humility, describing herself as a “small person” dedicated to its larger goals.