Battle for symbol: SC sets urgent hearing on TMC row
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list for urgent hearing a plea by former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the Election Commission of India’s decision to freeze the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) name and party symbol amid a dispute between two rival factions of the TMC.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter, seeking urgent hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.
“They issue a notification and in the middle of notification, they freeze the symbol. What is going on? We want urgent listing,” Sibal submitted.
The ECI on Friday had allotted separate names and symbols to the two rival factions following its interim decision a day earlier.
On Thursday, the ECI barred both groups from using the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ name and reserved its symbol pending a substantive determination of the dispute.
In its interim order issued on Thursday night, the poll panel, after hearing leaders of the two factions led by Banerjee and Arup Roy, said the matter requires substantive determination by the poll body under provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968.
In her plea filed in the apex court, Banerjee has made the ECI and Ritabrata Banerjee, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, as party respondents.
On September 18, Banerjee attacked the ECI over its decision to freeze the TMC’s name and <Jora Ghash Phul></i> (twin flowers on grass) symbol, likening the loss of the party’s identity to the pain of a mother losing her child and calling it a “black day” in the country’s democratic history.
Banerjee had said she would not accept the 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.
Her statements came hours after the poll panel allotted her faction the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘Football Player’ symbol for the October 6 bypolls to Nandigram and Rejinagar.
The rival faction led by Roy was allotted the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘Envelope’ symbol.
Assembly bypolls to Nandigram in East Medinipur district and Rejinagar in Murshidabad district are scheduled for October 6, with vote counting on October 9.
The bypolls in West Bengal were necessitated as Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari won from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur and chose to vacate Nandigram, while AJUP leader Humayun Kabir won from both Naoda and Rejinagar and decided to give up the Rejinagar seat.
The ECI order comes in the aftermath of a rebellion in the TMC legislature party after the Assembly poll defeat in May, which later spread to Parliament.
In June, 58 rebel MLAs elected expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly instead of the Mamata camp nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, and secured recognition from the Speaker, marking the party’s first split in its 28-year history.
Five days later, the revolt reached Parliament, with 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar joining the little-known NCPI and writing to Speaker Om Birla, backing the BJP-led NDA as a “separate bloc”, deepening the rupture in the party’s parliamentary ranks.
