Mamata Banerjee, who won Bengal but lost Nandigram to her former aide-turned-BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari, said that the election officer who looks after the counting in the constituency was threatened.

Mamata Banerjee said Monday that EVMs in Nandigram where she tasted defeat were tampered with and that the Returning Officer (RO) had denied recounting fearing a threat to his life.

She lost the Nandigram election to Suvendu Adhikari with just 1,700 votes. Earlier, she was declared winner from Nandigram but later it was announced that she had lost to Adhikari. She further stated that the servers were down for four hours. She alleged that the governor congratulated her, but suddenly everything changed.

She and her Trinamool Congress leaders have alleged that the counting of votes was not above board and added that the election officer had turned down the demands of recount. Demands for a recount were turned down by the election officer.

She said, "I received an SMS which suggests that the Returning Officer of Nandigram has written to someone if he allows recounting then his life would be under threat. I can't order a recount. My family will be in ruin. I have a little daughter."

The Commission is learned to have asked the state government to provide police protection to the Nandigram RO Kishore Kumar Biswas. A senior official said that, "The elections are over, and the Model Code of Conduct has been lifted from all four states and one union territory. The EC has asked the West Bengal government to give the officer protection, but it’s up to them to do it."

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien speaking to a news channel said that, "Something is fishy about Nandigram, don't you think? A party wins nearly three-fourths of all the seats in the state and the Chief Minister loses her seat."