New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to freeze the party’s name and its election symbol amid the ongoing dispute between rival factions.
The plea, filed on Friday, has been registered under Diary No. 58005/2026, with Mamata Banerjee as the petitioner and the Election Commission of India, its Secretary and rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee as respondents.
The plea comes a day after the poll panel passed an interim order barring both the Mamata Banerjee-led faction and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction from using the Trinamool Congress name and its reserved ‘Flowers and Grass’ election symbol.
The ECI directed both groups to submit alternative names and symbols for the upcoming by-elections. The poll panel had said that there were two rival groups claiming to be the All India Trinamool Congress and that the dispute required a substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The development has direct implications for the October 6 by-elections in West Bengal, including the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies.
The ‘original but minority’ faction led by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, strongly protested against the ECI’s interim order, maintaining that it did not accept the decision.
The ECI’s action followed a bitter organisational dispute within the TMC, with the rival camp led by expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee claiming control over the party’s organisational and legislative structures, while the Mamata Banerjee-led faction continued to assert that she remained the party’s legitimate leader.
The dispute had also spilt over into Parliament, where 20 rebel TMC Lok Sabha MPs had broken away and aligned themselves with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), claiming recognition as a separate parliamentary group.
The Mamata-led faction had challenged the delay by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in deciding disqualification petitions against the 20 rebel MPs under the anti-defection law.
On August 25, the Supreme Court had issued notice to the 20 rebel MPs on the plea filed by TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, while refraining from issuing notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Speaker, had informed the court that notices had already been issued to the 20 MPs in the disqualification proceedings. The apex court had thereafter sought responses from the rebel MPs.
The TMC has maintained that the MPs were elected on its symbol and that their subsequent decision to join another political formation attracts the provisions of the anti-defection law. However, the rebel faction had claimed the support of more than two-thirds of the TMC’s Lok Sabha MPs and sought recognition as a separate parliamentary group.
The dispute over the party’s organisational control subsequently reached the ECI, with both sides staking claim to the TMC name and symbol.
The poll body’s interim order said the temporary arrangement was intended to place the rival groups on an even footing and protect their respective rights and interests until a final determination of the dispute.
Earlier in the day, the ECI allotted the Mamata Banerjee-led faction the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘football player’ symbol, while the rival faction was allotted the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘envelope’ symbol for the by-elections.
(IANS)
