The Election Commission of India (ECI) convened on Saturday with two factions of the Trinamool Congress, both asserting claims to the party’s name, symbol, and organizational authority. This meeting comes in anticipation of upcoming by-elections in two assembly seats located in West Bengal.
TMC dispute spills beyond party symbol
“We won’t be able to disclose the exact contents of our deliberations with the ECI’s full bench. It also pointed out that the rebel MLAs had contested the recent assembly election on TMC tickets using the party symbol authorised by Banerjee as chairperson. ‘Na khata. Na Bahi. Jo Mamata Banerjee kahe, wahi sahi’ — this attitude can’t continue in a democratic set-up. The TMC is not a family-centric party and neither anyone’s ancestral property. “A tug-of-war broke out over the TMC’s party office and the office had to be closed down. A battle erupted over which faction would control the party funds and the accounts were frozen. Now another fight has broken out over the symbol. It may so happen that neither of the factions are allotted the party’s symbol. We want the TMC to be wiped out. They have done enough damage.
“The five member TMC delegation also established that internal elections have been held every five years to elect the Chairperson and subsequently the national working committee — in 2006, 2011, 2017 and 2022.
It told the commission that there was no genuine dispute to adjudicate and pointed to the party’s internal elections held every five years to elect its chairperson and subsequently the national working committee. This clearly establishes that the TMC Chairperson and national working committee have a five year term,” the delegation said in a statement. “All these MLAs had received ₹ 25 lakh each in their accounts from the party to fund their election campaigns,” it said. The Ritabrata faction, which includes around 60 of 80 newly elected TMC MLAs who broke away after the party’s defeat to the BJP in the assembly election, said its meeting with the commission was “very fruitful”. The party belongs to the grassroot level workers,” Ritabrata Banerjee told reporters. The dispute has already spilled over to control of the party office and funds, with the TMC office being closed following a confrontation between the rival factions and party accounts being frozen, according to BJP leader Dilip Ghosh. They have polluted the politics in West Bengal,” Ghosh said.
This came amid an ongoing tug-of-war between the Mamata Banerjee -loyalists and the rebels led by West Bengal Leader of the Opposition, Ritabrata Banerjee preparing for their first electoral battle in the October 6 bypolls to Nandigram and Rejinagar.
