TMC symbol row: Mamata faction gets Football Player, Roy group gets Envelope

The Election Commission has assigned separate names and symbols to rival Trinamool Congress factions ahead of the October 6 Bengal bypolls. Mamata Banerjee’s faction will use the Football Player symbol, while the Arup Roy-led group will contest with the Envelope symbol.

New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led faction of Trinamool Congress will fight the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal on the ‘Football Player’ symbol, while the Arup Roy-led group will contest with ‘Envelope’ as its poll emblem, the Election Commission said on Friday.

The order came after the poll panel heard both sides locked in a dispute over who gets to use the party name and its symbol.

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According to the EC order, the Mamata Banerjee faction has got the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ for the upcoming bypolls, while the rival group got the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’.

In an interim order issued on Thursday night, the EC directed the two sides not to use the party name, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and its ‘Jora Ghash Phul’ (two flowers with grass) symbol for the bypolls, and asked them to submit their preferred names and emblems by Friday morning.

The EC said the proposed names could be similar to AITC, while the symbols must be chosen from a list of free or available symbols notified for Independents and registered unrecognised political parties.

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 poll panel said the time available was not enough to complete the proceedings under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, but noted the urgency for party names and symbols for the by-elections.

It said the interim arrangement was made specifically to cover the upcoming bypolls and would remain in force until the dispute is finally determined.

The poll panel directed the returning officers in Rejinagar and Nandigram in Bengal, and Nagaon in Assam, where a Lok Sabha bypoll is scheduled on the same day, to strictly comply with its orders during the scrutiny of nominations and allotment of symbols.

The EC also clarified that it has not expressed any opinion nor passed any order with respect to the validity of nomination papers and the returning officers shall conduct the scrutiny of the same in accordance with the rules.

It said the papers of Safiuzzaman Saikh, who filed nomination from Rejinagar, and Ehteshmul Haque, who filed nomination from Nandigram, with documents signed by Arup Roy, shall be considered as candidates put up by the ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ having the symbol ‘Envelope’.

Similarly, the nominations of Rabiul Alam Chowdhury in Rejinagar and Sanchita Pradhan (Dey) in Nandigram with documents signed by Mamata Banerjee shall be considered as candidates put up by the ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ having the symbol ‘Football Player’.

The EC order comes against the backdrop 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 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.

The move is a setback for Mamata, whose hand-drawn ‘Jora Ghash Phul’ symbol had been central to TMC’s journey since its formation in 1998 after breaking away from the Congress.

The symbol became a potent expression of the party’s grassroots identity for the last 28 years.

The bypolls in 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 seat in Assam’s Nagaon fell vacant after former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned from the party and joined the BJP.