Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) shot back at the Election Commission’s interim order by emailing a list of alternative names and symbols at 11:36 pm Thursday, insisting the party can not be stripped of its brand for the upcoming bypolls.
The EC, which issued the order on Thursday night, barred TMC from using the All India Trinamool Congress name and the “flowers and grass” symbol in the October 6 elections for Rejinagar and Nandigram, and asked both sides to submit replacements by Friday morning.
The dispute stems from a rebellion that erupted after the May assembly elections, when 58 rebel MLAs expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee and elected a new opposition leader, sparking a split that later spilled into Parliament when 20 MPs joined the Nationalist Congress Party and backed the NDA.
The EC’s interim arrangement will remain in place until a final ruling under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order, 1968, so TMC must compete under a new identity for the bypolls; the party’s choice will be finalized by Friday, and the outcome could affect its standing in the state’s fractured political landscape.