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Informist, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Monday asked the Election Commission of India to decide the case of a split in the All India Trinamool Congress involving former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and a rival faction led by Arup Roy within three months after the pleadings have been submitted by the parties in the case. The pleas have to be filed by both parties within four weeks, after which the three-month period will start, it said. The apex court was hearing Banerjee's plea challenging the poll panel's interim order to freeze the Trinamool Congress' name and party symbol amid a dispute between two rival factions of the party. 

 

Earlier this month, the Election Commission, after hearing leaders of the two factions led by Banerjee and Roy, said the matter required substantive determination by the poll body under provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. It said neither of the two groups shall be permitted to use the name of the party "All India Trinamool Congress" till a final ruling is made. Thereafter, the poll panel had allotted separate names and symbols to the two rival factions for upcoming by-elections.

 

The poll panel's interim arrangement assumes significance ahead of the Oct. 6 assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar in West Bengal. The poll panel is examining rival claims relating to the party's organisational structure, leadership, and entitlement to its original name and reserved symbol. 

 

Following a defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election in May, internal revolts emerged against the leadership of Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. A large faction of legislators, led by Roy and Ritabrata Banerjee, broke away. Around 58 to 60 Members of Legislative Assembly aligned with the rebel camp, and Ritabrata Banerjee was recognised as the Leader of the Opposition. Even 20 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha members broke away under Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, announcing a merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and announced support for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

 

Mamata Banerjee said she would not accept the poll panel's interim arrangement as a settlement and vowed to fight till the end to reclaim the party's original identity and its "flowers-and-grass" symbol politically, democratically, and legally. Arguing for her, senior advocate Kapil Sibal questioned whether the poll body can pass an order in the middle of the election schedule, knowing fully the petitioner would not have any remedy.  End 

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya

 

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