Mamata-led TMC faction pitches cricket bat, footballer as symbols, 3 party names amid EC freeze

Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction on Friday pitched cricket bat, footballer without football as symbols and 3 party names after the Election Commission barred both the two factions of the All India Trinamool Congress from using the party name and symbol for the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal’s Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly seats and Assam’s Nagaon parliamentary seat.

The three names pitched by Mamata Banerjee faction are, All India Trinamool Mamata Congress, All India Mamata Trinamool Congress and Mamata Trinamool Congress

The commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, directed both factions to submit three preferred temporary group names and three choices from the list of free symbols by 11am on Friday. The 14-page interim order clarified that both sides could retain a visual or textual linkage to the parent party in their temporary group names.

The commission said the interim measure was issued to place "both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests" until a final decision is reached.

Candidates from the rival factions had earlier submitted conflicting Form-B nomination papers under the TMC banner for the bye-elections in West Bengal and Assam.

ECI noted that the restriction on using the party’s primary name and symbol will remain in force until it delivers a final verdict on the competing claims under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order, 1968.

Thursday’s order came after the three-member commission, which also includes Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, held back-to-back hearings in New Delhi. A delegation led by Arup Roy and Ritabrata Banerjee met the panel at 3pm, followed by a delegation representing Mamata Banerjee led by Kalyan Banerjee at 4pm.

The commission had previously met both groups on September 12.

Without ruling on the merits of the organisational dispute, the poll panel stated that substantive determination of the claims would take time and could not be completed before the ongoing bypoll schedule.

Rahul Gandhi slams BJP, EC

Election Commission's decision was criticised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who accused the BJP and the poll panel of working together to weaken opposition parties, calling "party theft" the latest sign of India's democratic decline.

Gandhi alleged that the BJP and the ECI had followed a similar pattern in disputes involving Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and now the Trinamool Congress.

"First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern—BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away. When an entire party can be stolen, it's hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too. Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft—these have become symbols of our democratic decline," he said in a post on X.

The Congress leader further alleged that the ECI was failing to fulfil its constitutional responsibility to protect voters and was instead helping the BJP overturn election results.

"The ECI's constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate—but instead, it's aiding those very forces that overturn the people's verdict. This fight isn't just Mamata Banerjee's. It's the fight of every political party, every voter who wants free and fair elections," he said.