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.
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 EC will allot a name and a symbol from the lists to each camp. The party, which governed the state for a decade and a half, was trounced by BJP in this year’s assembly polls, leading to a split in the once formidable organisation.
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. 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. The commission had previously met both groups on September 12. Earlier reporting noted: The full bench of the poll panel, chaired by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, directed the rival camps in the party — one headed by former CM Mamata Banerjee and the other by the leader of opposition in the assembly, Ritabrata Banerjee — to submit three choices for a party name and as many for an election symbol by 11am on Friday for the Oct 6 bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar. Earlier reporting noted: The order signals a major shift in Bengal politics after 28 years. For the first time since Jan 1998, when Mamata broke away from Congress to form her own party, neither the name ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ nor its flowers-and-grass symbol will feature on EVMs in Bengal.
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. 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. 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. Earlier reporting noted: EC freezes TMC name & symbol, asks rival camps for options Kolkata: Election Commission on Thursday issued an interim order freezing the name ‘ All India Trinamool Congress ’ and the party’s ‘flowers and grass’ symbol.
