The Election Commission of India (ECI) has allotted new names and symbols to the two rival factions of the Trinamool Congress after freezing the “All India Trinamool Congress” name and its reserved “Flowers & Grass” symbol amid the ongoing dispute over the party’s identity.
According to an order issued by the ECI on September 18, the faction led by Mamata Banerjee has been allotted the name Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and the Football Player symbol. It too has been recognised as a political party in West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura. Meanwhile, the faction led by Arup Roy has been allotted the name Democratic Trinamool Congress and the Envelope symbol.
The Commission has also directed that candidates who had already filed their nominations under the disputed TMC identity would be treated as candidates of their respective newly allotted parties. In Rejinagar, for instance, Safiuzzaman Saikh, whose Form-B was authorised by Arup Roy, will be treated as a candidate of the Democratic Trinamool Congress with the Envelope symbol. Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, whose Form-B was authorised by Mamata Banerjee, will contest as a candidate of the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress with the Football Player symbol, subject to the statutory requirements governing scrutiny of nominations.
The same arrangement has been extended to the rival candidates in Nandigram, while Abdul Salam’s nomination for the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in Assam has also been placed under the Mamata-led party name and symbol.
The two camps had been asked by the Election Commission to submit three alternative names and three free symbols in order of preference after the Commission barred both sides from using the original All India Trinamool Congress name and “Flowers & Grass” symbol.
The Mamata Banerjee-led camp had proposed three possible names: All India Trinamool Mamata Congress, All India Mamata Trinamool Congress and Mamata Trinamool Congress. Its proposed symbols included a football player with a football, a football and a cricket bat and ball. The rival camp had submitted Nationalist Trinamool Congress, Democratic Trinamool Congress and West Bengal Trinamool Congress as its preferred names. Its proposed symbols were an envelope, an electrical torch and a blackboard.
The poll body ultimately selected Democratic Trinamool Congress and Envelope for the Arup Roy-led group, while the Mamata Banerjee-led faction was allotted Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and Football Player. The September 18 order records that “both the groups have furnished their choice of names & symbols” before setting out the final allotments.
The dispute stems from competing claims over the recognised political identity of the All India Trinamool Congress. The Election Commission said a dispute under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968 had been brought before it and registered as Dispute Case No. 01 of 2026. In an earlier order dated September 17, the Commission directed that neither of the two groups, one led by Arup Roy and the other by Mamata Banerjee, could use the name “All India Trinamool Congress”. It also barred both factions from using the party’s reserved “Flowers & Grass” symbol.
The intervention came as the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly by-elections were already underway, with nominations having been filed by candidates claiming to represent the same TMC but carrying Form-B authorisations from different factions. The Returning Officers had consequently received rival candidates claiming to represent the same party in both constituencies. The Commission said that without its intervention, the Returning Officers could have been required to reject both sets of nominations because the party name and symbol had already been frozen. “That would thereby deprive the electors of a fair electoral competition and would prejudice the outcome of such elections as well,” the order states.
The ECI said its latest directions were intended to “protect the democratic rights of the electors, preserve the integrity of the electoral process, and ensure that no candidate or faction is unfairly prejudiced pending a final determination of the dispute.” The order therefore settles the immediate question of what names and symbols the two factions will use in the affected elections, but it does not amount to a final determination of ownership of the original TMC identity. For now, the All India Trinamool Congress name and Flowers & Grass symbol remain unavailable to either faction while the larger dispute before the Election Commission continues.
