Polls can't be won by rigging: Mamata to Opposition

Ridiculing the opposition for repeatedly rushing to the Election Commission with complaints and allegations of rigging, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said polls cannot be won through such means.

She said the CPI-M, Congress and BJP will understand this after the results of the assembly polls are out on May 19.

"Elections cannot be won by rigging and complaining. The CPI-M, Congress and BJP will understand this after the Bengal election results," Banerjee said at an election rally in Murshidabad.

Referring to the huge voter turnout in the first phase of the assembly polls on Monday in 18 constituencies, the Trinamool Congress supremo asserted it was a vote against the Congress, CPI-M and BJP.

On the CPI-M and Congress tie-up, Banerjee observed that the Marxist leaders were "rudderless without Congress support".

"The CPI-M and the Congress are two sides of the same coin in Bengal," she said.

Firing salvos at the Bharatiya Janata Party, she reiterated that the party was trying to create a rift between communities in the state.

"The Congress and the CPI-M are like neem leaves, very bitter. The BJP is like a thorn that pricks," she added.