Both Trinamool factions lose the party name, and get new ones
The Election Commission froze the All India Trinamool Congress name and its flowers and grass symbol, then allotted a football player to Mamata Banerjee and an envelope to the rebels, in time for the October 6 bypolls.
The Election Commission has taken the name All India Trinamool Congress and its flowers and grass symbol away from both sides of the party's split, and given each of them a new name and a new symbol to fight next month's West Bengal bypolls with.
The faction led by Mamata Banerjee will be called Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and will contest under a football player. The rebel faction will be called Democratic Trinamool Congress and will contest under an envelope. Both have been recognised as political parties in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura.
A freeze, then a substitution
The Commission's interim order came on Thursday and barred either faction from using the party's registered name or its reserved symbol at the bypolls to the Rejinagar and Nandigram assembly seats, which are due on October 6.
Both sides were told to propose up to three alternative names and three symbols from the list not allotted to any party, and to do it by 11am on Friday. The order was issued by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar with Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and S S Sandhu, and invokes Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, which governs rival claims by factions of the same party. The Commission said there was not enough time to complete those proceedings before the byelection, which is why the symbol was frozen rather than awarded.
The Banerjee faction submitted its choices by email at 11.36pm on Thursday, and said it did so under strongest protest. Its options for a symbol were a football player and a cricket bat. The Commission announced the allotments on Friday, ahead of the scrutiny of nominations.
Kalyan Banerjee, a Trinamool member of Parliament, told the Commission that the Mamata faction is the original party and filed documents in support of that claim.
The split behind the order
The party lost power in West Bengal after fifteen years when the Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 of the 294 assembly seats. The Trinamool Congress was reduced to 80 seats.
It expelled two of its legislators, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha. On June 3 the assembly speaker, Rathindra Nath Bose, recognised 58 rebel legislators as the principal opposition party and named Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition and Saha as his deputy, in place of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, whom the Mamata Banerjee camp had nominated. On June 22 the rebels said they had removed Mamata Banerjee as chairperson and installed Arup Roy in her place as head of what they called the real Trinamool Congress. Her camp rejected that.
Twenty rebel members of Parliament merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India and backed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. The Mamata Banerjee faction was left with nine Rajya Sabha members after Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned in June, joined the BJP and were re-elected to the upper House on July 24. A fourth, the actor Koel Mallick, also resigned.
What the order does not settle
The allotment is temporary and covers the bypolls. The underlying question of which faction is the Trinamool Congress remains before the Commission under Paragraph 15.
The party was founded in 1998, and this is the first split in its 28-year history.
Sources
- Hindustan Times — Himanshi Dahiya, updated 18 Sep 2026 3.57pm IST. The two new names and symbols, recognition in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura; the freeze ahead of the Rejinagar and Nandigram bypolls on October 6; the 58 rebel legislators recognised on June 3, speaker Rathindra Nath Bose, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the expulsions of Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, the 20 rebel MPs and the Nationalist Citizens Party of India, the BJP winning 207 of 294 seats and the Rajya Sabha resignations.
- The Indian Express — Damini Nath and Ravik Bhattacharya, 18 Sep 2026 6.21pm IST. The Commission allotted the alternative names and symbols on Friday after recognising the split; Mamata All India Trinamool Congress with a football player, Democratic Trinamool Congress with an envelope; the Banerjee faction submitted a football player and a cricket bat as its two symbol options; up to three options each.
- The Tribune — Animesh Singh, Tribune News Service, 18 Sep 2026. The freeze order by CEC Gyanesh Kumar with Vivek Joshi and S S Sandhu; three names and three free symbols each by Friday morning; Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968; insufficient time to complete proceedings; Kalyan Banerjee on the original party claim.
- Millennium Post — MPost, 18 Sep 2026 9.30am IST. The Banerjee faction emailed its choices at 11.36pm on Thursday and submitted them under strongest protest; the party was founded in 1998 and this is the first split in its 28-year history.
