Mamata moves SC challenging ECI order freezing TMC name, symbol

NEW DELHI, SEP 18 (IANS): Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to freeze the party’s name and its election symbol amid the ongoing dispute between rival factions.
The plea, filed on Friday, has been registered under Diary No. 58005/2026, with Mamata Banerjee as the petitioner and the Election Commission of India, its Secretary and rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee as respondents. The plea comes a day after the poll panel passed an interim order barring both the Mamata Banerjee-led faction and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction from using the Trinamool Congress name and its reserved ‘Flowers and Grass’ election symbol.
The ECI directed both groups to submit alternative names and symbols for the upcoming by-elections. The poll panel had said that there were two rival groups claiming to be the All India Trinamool Congress and that the dispute required a substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. The development has direct implications for the October 6 by-elections in West Bengal, including the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies.
The ‘original but minority’ faction led by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, strongly protested against the ECI’s interim order, maintaining that it did not accept the decision.