Opposition leaders on Friday hit out at the Election Commission of India (ECI) after it barred former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee from using the name and symbol of the party she founded, and prompted a swift outreach by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who spoke with Banerjee to express solidarity.
“We met the ECI last week and clearly saw how the compromised crook CEC Gyanesh Kumar is trying to steal TMC’s symbol… He is Amit Shah’s pet and broker,” said Gokhale on X, alleging that the ECI raised the dispute over the party symbol only after the Bengal bypolls were announced.
“We are in this together. “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. However, the ECI decision has brought them together. Both groups have been recognised as political parties in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura. TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee questioned the ECI’s interim order saying that the Ritabrata faction had no legal claim over AITC’s name and symbol. “Interim order only can be issued when a prima facie case is there. Congress leader Pawan Khera alleged that BJP was using the ECI to influence the electoral system, saying that the party does not believe it has enough electoral popularity to win by itself. “The BJP does not trust its popularity to speak for itself. BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi hit back at Rahul Gandhi, saying his remarks reflected a lack of understanding of his own party’s history. “In the process of accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party, he apparently does not even pay attention to which parties he is naming… The full form of NCP is the Nationalist Congress Party, which broke away from the Congress. “If Rahul Gandhi ji does not know this, then I think, forget about being the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi ji is not even qualified to be the leader of the Congress. A person who does not know the history of his own party,” Trivedi added. West Bengal assembly speaker Rathindra Nath Bose recognised Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) after he was expelled from the party. The Mamata Banerjee faction had named Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay for the post. They claimed the right to the party’s flowers and grass symbol, its name, and organisational control. Twenty rebel TMC parliamentarians merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India and backed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. A fourth TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha.
The former chief minister also announced that her party will support the Congress candidate in the October 6 bypoll from Nandigram after her candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew her nomination. Kalyan also questioned the rival faction’s claim that the AITC ceased to exist in 2025, pointing to their earlier recognition of the party. Noting that Sharad Pawar left Congress in 1999 and Mamta Banerjee broke away in 1997, Trivedi said that both NCP and TMC had emerged from splits or breakaways from the Congress itself. Citing Congress’s history of internal splits, Trivedi said, “In 1984, Congress engineered a split in the National Conference and broke it apart. In Bihar, Congress engineered the split in the Lok Dal…The Congress, from 1885 until today, there has hardly been a period of 20 years in which Congress has not split,” he said. It expelled two of its 78 legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, before 57 of them rebelled and backed Ritabrata Banerjee as the LoP after the TMC lost power after 15 years. On June 3, Bose recognised 58 rebel TMC legislators as the principal opposition party and named Ritabrata Banerjee and Saha as the LoP and deputy LoP. This came a month after the BJP swept to power in West Bengal for the first time, winning 207 of 294 seats. The TMC’s tally was reduced to 80. The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were reelected to the upper House on July 24.
Therefore, up to that day, they accepted the existence of the AITC.
Banerjee later said that the Congress and her party were ready to work together against the central government. We want BJP to be removed,’’ Banerjee said about her conversation with Gandhi. Gandhi, who reportedly told the former chief minister that his party was ready to extend any assistance required, later led his party’s attack on the Election Commission. When an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too,” Gandhi said, a reference to the split in the two Maharashtra parties. “The ECI’s constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate—but instead, it’s aiding those very forces that overturn the people’s verdict,” he added, calling the issue a fight for every political party and voter seeking free and fair elections. On Friday, the Election Commission recognised the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction as “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and allotted the envelope symbol. Mamata Banerjee’s faction will be called “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” with the football player symbol. And what we have said about the resolution, no prima facie case has been made,” he said, further adding that the “Flowers and Grass” symbol should have been issued by Mamata Banerjee. “On 3rd June, they went to the Speaker and said, ‘We are the bloc of the AITC. All of a sudden, on 22nd June, they said there is no AITC,” he said, adding that the dispute was driven by Ritabrata Banerjee’s failure to be chosen as Opposition leader. It sneaks back into power through the back door— with the ECI at its side,” said Khera. TMC leader Saket Gokhale targeted the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that he was colluding with the BJP to “steal TMC’s symbol”. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the Election Commission’s decisions should strengthen democratic values and enhance its prestige, further asking, “Have the affidavits we submitted to the Election Commission been received? The word ‘Congress’ is in the name of Trinamool Congress itself,” said Trivedi, referring to the LoP’s post on X. And if any leader ever left, they experienced that the dignity, respect and self-respect they received in the Bharatiya Janata Party was not received anywhere else,” Trivedi said, arguing that unlike Congress, BJP did not “finish off” its party members and leaders. “Rahul Gandhi ji’s statement today is once again an example of his ignorance of Indian politics, his ignorance of his own party, his hostility towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and of making a mockery of his own party’s history,” he said.
The outreach marks a notable political shift, given that Banerjee has traditionally maintained closer ties with Sonia Gandhi and contested the state assembly elections earlier this year on its own. In an interim order on Thursday, ECI barred the Trinamool Congress-led by Mamata Banerjee and the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee from using the party name and symbol for the West Bengal bypolls. “The Bharatiya Janata Party is the only political party—from the days of the Jana Sangh until today—in which there has never been a vertical division.
A fourth TMC Rajya Sabha member, actor Koel Mallick, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha. The rift in the TMC follows the BJP’s victory in the West Bengal assembly elections, where it won 207 of 294 seats to end 15 years of TMC rule. Following the defeat, 57 of the 80 TMC legislators backed Ritabrata Banerjee, whom assembly speaker Rathindra Nath Bose recognised as the Leader of the Opposition. The Mamata-led TMC was left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were reelected to the upper House on July 24.
