A political showdown is taking place in the Indian state of West Bengal as the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee – India’s most powerful female politician – has dramatically refused to resign after she lost elections to the prime minister’s party this week. On Monday, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won an overwhelming victory in the state elections in West Bengal, where Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) have been in power for 15 years. But in a dramatic press conference on Tuesday night, Banerjee accused the BJP of “forcefully capturing” the elections and made it clear she had no intention of stepping down, paving the way for a constitutional crisis in the state. “Why should I step down? We have not lost,” she said. “The mandate has been looted. Where does the question of resignation arise?” She added that TMC were “defeated not by public mandate but by conspiracy”. Under India’s constitution, Banerjee, 71, cannot legally remain as chief minister given TMC’s loss in the election.…