Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of “colluding” with the BJP, a day after the poll panel froze the Trinamool Congress’ reserved election symbol amid a dispute between rival factions.
Rahul Gandhi slammed the Election Commission and drew a comparison with the earlier disputes involving the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). “First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. The pattern is the same every time — the BJP and the Election Commission collude to split a party. Then, its election symbol is snatched away,” Gandhi said in a post on X.
He alleged that the poll panel was failing to uphold its constitutional responsibility. “The ECI's constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate; instead, it is aiding the very forces that overturn the people's verdict,” he added. Gandhi also expressed support for Mamata Banerjee, arguing that the dispute had wider implications for political parties and voters. “This fight is not just Mamata Banerjee's; it is the fight of every political party and every voter who desires free and fair elections,” he said.
The senior Congress leader linked the development to his broader allegations of “vote chori”, describing the freezing of the Trinamool symbol as another indication of what he called democratic decline. “If an entire party can be stolen, then the theft of the votes of crores of Indians comes as no surprise. Stolen votes. Stolen government. Now, a stolen party — these have become symbols of our democratic decline,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The ECI on Thursday suspended the use of the party’s ‘flower’ symbol by both factions involved in the dispute, one led by former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the other comprising rebel leaders led by Assembly Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee. The order means neither faction can use the Trinamool Congress’ existing symbol in the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly bypolls scheduled for October 6.
The poll body said its interim order followed competing claims over the leadership and control of the recognised political party. It said a “substantive determination” under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968, would be required before the dispute could be finally settled. Until then, the freeze on the existing symbol will remain in force.
The commission has asked both factions to submit three preferred party names and three free-symbol choices by 11 am on September 18. The poll panel has identified two groups in the dispute: one led by Mamata Banerjee and another represented by the faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, which has named Arup Roy as its party chairperson.
The split followed the Trinamool Congress’ defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May. The developments echo the disputes that previously divided the Shiv Sena and NCP. In both cases, rival factions eventually secured the original party names and election symbols, while the groups led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar continued under new names and symbols.
