ECI Summons Both Trinamool Factions for Fresh Hearing on September 17
The Election Commission has called both Trinamool Congress factions for another hearing on September 17 over their competing claims to the party name and symbol.
The Election Commission of India has summoned both factions of the Trinamool Congress for a fresh round of hearings on Thursday, September 17, 2026, as it weighs their rival claims over the party's name and symbol.
One faction is led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while the other is headed by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee. The two sides met the poll body on Saturday, September 12, 2026, in connection with the dispute.
In separate letters dated September 16, the Commission asked the Ritabrata-led team to appear at its Delhi headquarters at 3 p.m., with the Mamata-led grouping scheduled for 4 p.m.
The poll panel had earlier sought additional documents from the Ritabrata faction. That camp claims the backing of nearly 65 of the 80 Trinamool MLAs in the 294-member Assembly.
Bypolls in the backdrop
The hearings come just ahead of Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar on October 6, 2026, for which the nomination process closed on Wednesday, September 16. Both factions have fielded candidates in the two constituencies.
Drawing on the precedent set in the Shiv Sena case, sources indicated that the Commission is likely to freeze the party symbol temporarily.
The Ritabrata faction is understood to have flagged alleged anomalies in the Mamata camp's documents at the September 12 meeting, specifically concerning the June 5 Trinamool Working Committee meeting at which several office-bearers were replaced by Ms. Banerjee.
After that meeting, the Mamata faction asserted that there was "no dispute", describing its rivals as a group of traitors and noting that the MLAs in question had contested on Trinamool tickets five months earlier and had received party funds for their campaigns.