Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction on Friday pitched cricket bat, footballer without football as symbols and 3 party names after the Election Commission barred both the two factions of the All India Trinamool Congress from using the party name and symbol for the October 6 bypolls in West Bengal’s Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly seats and Assam’s Nagaon parliamentary seat.
The commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, directed both factions to submit three preferred temporary group names and three choices from the list of free symbols by 11am on Friday. Earlier reporting noted: EC freezes TMC name & symbol, asks rival camps for options Kolkata: Election Commission on Thursday issued an interim order freezing the name ‘ All India Trinamool Congress ’ and the party’s ‘flowers and grass’ symbol. The party, which governed the state for a decade and a half, was trounced by BJP in this year’s assembly polls, leading to a split in the once formidable organisation.
The 14-page interim order clarified that both sides could retain a visual or textual linkage to the parent party in their temporary group names. ECI noted that the restriction on using the party’s primary name and symbol will remain in force until it delivers a final verdict on the competing claims under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order, 1968. Earlier reporting noted: The order signals a major shift in Bengal politics after 28 years. For the first time since Jan 1998, when Mamata broke away from Congress to form her own party, neither the name ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ nor its flowers-and-grass symbol will feature on EVMs in Bengal.
The commission said the interim measure was issued to place “both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests” until a final decision is reached. Earlier reporting noted: EC’s 14-page order reasoned that an interim order was necessary because “the time available is not adequate to complete the proceedings under Para 15 of the Symbols Order”, given that the bypolls are less than three weeks away. Stating that the claims by the rival blocs required a “substantive determination”, the EC order said the interim decision would “cover the purpose of the current bye-elections and continue till the final determination of the dispute”.
