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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Election Commission of India to state the timeline for giving a final order in the case of a split in the All India Trinamool Congress involving West Bengal former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and a rival faction led by Arup Roy. The apex court will hear on Monday 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. 

 

Last week, the Election Commission of India, after hearing leaders of the two factions led by Banerjee and Arup Roy, said the matter required substantive determination by the poll body under provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. It said that neither of the two groups led by Roy and other led by Banerjee 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 bypolls.

 

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 Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. A large faction of legislators, led by Arup 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 in the West Bengal Assembly. Even 20 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha Members of Parliament of Trinamool Congress broke away under Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, announcing a merger with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and announced support for the 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 Banerjee, advocate Kapil Sibal questioned whether the election commission can pass an order in mid of the election schedule, knowing fully the petitioner will not have any remedy.  End 

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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