EC Freezes Trinamool Symbol as Mamata and Rebel Faction Fight for Party Legacy

The flower-and-stem symbol that Mamata Banerjee once drew by hand for the party she founded in 1998 has been locked away by the Election Commission. With two groups claiming the All India Trinamool Congress, the poll body has frozen the 'Jora Ghas Phool' emblem until it determines which side is the genuine party.

For the October 6 bypolls, including in Rejinagar and Nandigram in West Bengal, the two camps will contest under different names and symbols. Mamata Banerjee's faction has been allotted a 'footballer' and has prefixed her name to the party name. The group led by Arup Roy and Ritabrata Banerjee, which has added the word 'democratic' to its name, has been given an 'envelope'.

In its interim order, the commission said there was not enough time to settle the question of which group is the real party. That determination falls under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

The same provision was at the centre of the Congress split of 1969, when Indira Gandhi's faction clashed with the old guard. The commission then applied three tests: the party's aims and objects, its constitution, and majority support. It found no distinction between the groups on aims, and held that the constitution offered little help given expulsions on both sides. On numbers, Indira Gandhi's side had most MPs, state legislators and All India Congress Committee members. In January 1971, her group was declared the real Congress and given the 'Two Bullocks' symbol. The Supreme Court upheld that decision later that year.

More recent disputes show how heavily the commission has come to rely on the numerical test. In the 2023 Shiv Sena case, it set aside the party constitution and awarded the name and 'bow and arrow' symbol to Eknath Shinde's faction, which had most MLAs and MPs. In the 2024 Nationalist Congress Party dispute, it found the party's top bodies 'shrouded with doubt' and declared Ajit Pawar's group the real NCP on the strength of its legislative majority.

In that order, the commission observed that most symbol disputes before it arise because parties either do not hold regular organisational elections, do not follow their constitutions, or amend them so that elections become appointments. In such cases, it said, a party becomes a private fiefdom and the commission is forced to rely on the legislative wing.

For Trinamool, a key date may be June 22, when the rebel faction elected Arup Roy as chairperson of a 'National Working Committee' at a special session in Kolkata. The rebels told the commission that the previous committee's term had expired in February 2025. Mamata Banerjee's side maintains the committee's term has always been five years since 2006, making the next organisational elections due in 2027, and argues the June 22 meeting was void.

The revolt gathered pace after the BJP defeated the TMC in the Bengal elections in April-May, ending Mamata Banerjee's 15-year rule. Around 60 of the party's 80 MLAs went with Ritabrata Banerjee, who became Leader of the Opposition, and Mamata later lost 20 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha MPs. The rebels have blamed Mamata's nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his alleged corrupt ways for their move; Mamata has said they struck a deal with the BJP.

As her party's candidate withdrew from the Nandigram bypoll contest, Mamata Banerjee announced support for the Congress candidate, who was arrested soon after in an old case. The deeper question of what constitutes a party — its organisation or its legislators — remains before the commission and the courts.