The Supreme Court on Monday set a firm clock for the Election Commission of India to decide which of two rival Trinamool Congress camps is entitled to the party’s official name and its reserved “Flowers and Grass” symbol. The bench did not stay the freeze already in force for the October 6 West Bengal bypolls.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana was hearing a writ petition filed by former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. She has challenged the Commission’s September 17 interim order that barred both factions from using “All India Trinamool Congress” and the “Flowers & Grass” (Jora Ghash Phul) symbol until a final finding under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The court directed the two sides to finish affidavits and counter-affidavits within four weeks. After that, the ECI has three months to give a final decision. Taken together, the outer limit is about four months from Monday. The Commission’s counsel sought six months, citing the volume of affidavits from party workers. Justice Bagchi replied that three months was “good enough.” The bench added that if an extreme exigency arose, the poll body could return to the court. It also said the parties’ cooperation would be “extremely important,” and that it was expressing no view on the merits. All contentions remain open before the Commission.
The dispute reached the Commission after competing claims to organisational control following the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed the state government under Suvendu Adhikari and the TMC, in power since 2011, was reduced to the opposition. Two groups - one led by Banerjee, the other associated with Arup Roy and Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee - each claimed to be the real All India Trinamool Congress, a recognised state party in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura.
On September 17 the full Commission, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, held that there were two rival groups and that a “substantive determination” under Paragraph 15 was required. It said there was not enough time to finish that inquiry before the bypolls. To put both sides “on an even keel,” it froze the original name and reserved symbol for the current bye-elections and until a final order. Both camps were told to submit alternative names and free symbols.
On September 18 the Commission allotted:
Mamata Banerjee’s faction: “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and the Football Player symbol
The rival faction: “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and the Envelope symbol
Mamata Banerjee called the freeze a “black day,” compared losing the party identity to a mother losing a child, and said she would fight the arrangement politically and in court. She named the ECI and Ritabrata Banerjee as respondents. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Kalyan Banerjee appeared for her; senior advocate D.S. Naidu appeared for the Commission.
The legal template is familiar. Paragraph 15 lets the Commission decide which group, if any, represents a recognised party when it splits. Interim freezes, followed by temporary names and free symbols, were used in recent Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party disputes before a final award of the original name and reserved symbol.
Polling in Nandigram (East Medinipur) and Rejinagar (Murshidabad) is on October 6; counting is on October 9. Nandigram fell vacant after Chief Minister Adhikari, who won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur, retained Bhabanipur - the Kolkata seat where he defeated Mamata Banerjee. Rejinagar fell vacant after Aam Janata Unnayan Party founder Humayun Kabir, won two seats, resigned one of them. For the first time since Mamata Banerjee founded the party in 1998, neither the All India Trinamool Congress name nor Jora Ghash Phul will appear on EVMs in Bengal.
