Mamata Banerjee's Twitter profile
Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee has officially become a former Chief Minister following West Bengal Governor R. N. Ravi announced the dissolution of the state Legislative Assembly on Thursday evening, May 7, which also brought the previous Cabinet led by her to an end.
However, her official social media accounts on X and Facebook reportedly still identify her as the “Chief Minister of West Bengal.”
The “about” sections of both profiles continue to describe her as the “Founder Chairperson All India Trinamool Congress” and “Honourable Chief Minister, West Bengal,” Siasat Daily reported.
The descriptions on her social media profiles are said to reflect remarks she made during a press conference on May 5, a day after the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election results, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party secured a landslide victory, ending the 15-year rule of the All India Trinamool Congress in the state.
At the press conference, Banerjee reportedly said she would not follow the convention of submitting her resignation to the Governor because she believed the election results did not reflect the actual public mandate. Her remarks were widely interpreted as a refusal to accept both the party’s defeat in the state and her own loss in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.
Banerjee was defeated in Bhabanipur by Suvendu Adhikari, the outgoing Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, by a margin of more than 15,000 votes.
The developments have drawn comparisons with the conduct of former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after the 2011 Assembly elections that ended the 34-year Left Front rule in the state.
On May 13, 2011, even before the official results were declared, Bhattacharjee reportedly visited Raj Bhavan after trends indicated the defeat of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government and submitted his resignation to then Governor M. K. Narayanan.
Reports from that time noted that Bhattacharjee had arrived at Raj Bhavan in the official bulletproof vehicle allotted to him as Chief Minister but left in a vehicle provided by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after resigning. He also reportedly thanked his security personnel for their service and requested that they no longer continue with his official security duties.
Union Minister of State and former West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar also referred to Bhattacharjee’s actions while commenting on the current situation involving Banerjee.
Majumdar said there could be no comparison between Bhattacharjee and Banerjee, adding that despite ideological differences, Bhattacharjee was widely regarded as a person of honesty and integrity who was never driven by a desire to cling to power.