Trinamool name, symbol on interim freeze; factions told to pick new ones

It is under Para 15 of the Symbols Order that the EC decides disputes within registered parties.

The order said there wasn’t enough time to resolve the dispute before the bypolls. “In order to place both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests, and going by past precedence”, neither group would be permitted to use the name All India Trinamool Congress and the party’s “flowers and grass” symbol, it said.

“Both the groups shall be known by such names as they may choose for their respective groups, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party ‘All India Trinamool Congress’… both the groups shall also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the EC for the purposes of the current bye-elections,” it said.

The two sides have been asked to submit their preferences for names and symbols by Friday, 11 am.

Earlier in the day, the EC met both the factions. After the meeting, MP Kalyan Banerjee, of the Mamata faction, told reporters: “…we have said that no interim order should be passed”.

The Arup Roy faction was represented by Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee at the meeting with the EC.

The split in the party emerged soon after the BJP won the West Bengal Assembly elections in May. On June 3, around 60 of 80 Trinamool Congress MLAs rebelled against the party leadership, chose Ritabrata as the Leader of Opposition, and secured recognition from the Assembly Speaker. The rebel faction later declared Arup Roy as the party chairperson.

Of Mamata’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs, 20 have also broken away from the party and merged with the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).

EC follows precedence

In its interim order on Thursday, the EC noted that Mamata had informed it on June 23 that a meeting of the party’s national working committee was held on June 20, and the names of office-bearers and members of the national working committee were declared.

Ritabrata told the EC on June 23 that the tenure of the national working committee had ended on February 11, 2025, so it ceased to have the authority to make decisions after that. He said a special session of the party was convened on June 22, where Arup Roy was unanimously elected as party chairperson.

Mamata has maintained that the party constitution was submitted to the EC on March 9 this year, and it mentions that the term of the party’s office-bearers is five years. She has said the last elections took place in 2022, so the term of the office-bearers is valid until 2027.

The EC’s decision to freeze the party name and symbol follows the precedence in recent cases of splits within the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The EC had frozen the names and symbols of the parties until the dispute was resolved, finally allotting them to the rebel groups in both cases.