Combined image showing Arup Roy and Ritabrata Banerjee (L) and former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (R). File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Election Commission on Friday (September 18, 2026) allotted new names and symbols to the two factions of the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee.
The Mamata faction got the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ with ‘football player’ as its symbol, while the Ritabrata grouping was allotted the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ with the symbol ‘envelope’.
Photo: www.eci.gov.in
Both groups had approached the EC staking claim over the party name and symbol.
In an interim order issued on Thursday (September 17) night, the poll body barred both factions from using the original party name, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and its ‘Jora Ghas Phul’ (two flowers with grass) symbol for the upcoming bypolls in the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies of West Bengal. The two sides were asked to submit their alternative choices by 11 a.m. on Friday.
Photo: www.eci.gov.in
The Ritabrata faction, which has Arup Roy as the signatory, submitted three names – Nationalist Trinamool Congress, Democratic Trinamool Congress, and West Bengal Trinamool Congress. Their choice of symbols were envelope, torch, and pencil box.
The Mamata Banerjee faction submitted its choices on Thursday night. They were Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, All India Trinamool Congress Mamata, and Trinamool Mamata Congress for name, and football player and cricket bat as symbol.
According to the EC rules, under Para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order 1968, if an election or byelection is imminent and the poll body cannot immediately verify a clear majority or conclude substantive proceedings, it may temporarily freeze, through an interim order, the parent party’s name and official symbol so that neither faction uses them. Instead, they are directed to submit preferences for alternative temporary names (often including a linkage to the parent party) and choose separate symbols from the EC’s list of free symbols, for ongoing polls.
The EC order on Friday (September 18) further said that the candidates who have filed nominations on behalf of the respective factions in Rejinagar and Nandigram in West Bengal and Nagaon in Assam would now be considered under their new names and symbols.
“The Returning Officers of the 70-Rejinagar Assembly constituency, 210-Nandigram Assembly constituency and 9-Nagaon Parliamentary constituency are directed to strictly comply with this order during the scrutiny of nominations and allotment of symbols,” it said.
Reacting to the EC order, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee said: “It is a fight between an individual cult and a collective. We are a collective. The individual cult is resting on an individual and chose such a name while we have upheld the collective and the values of democracy, nationalism and secularism”.
Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called the EC decision to freeze the party name and symbol a “black day for Indian democracy”. Ms. Banerjee is rumoured to have drawn the Jora Ghas Phul symbol while launching the party in 1998.
Revolt after rout
The rebellion in the Trinamool Congress began shortly after the party’s loss in the West Bengal Assembly polls in May this year.
In June, 58 rebel MLAs elected expelled leader Ritabrata as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly instead of the Mamata camp nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, and secured recognition from the Speaker, marking the party’s first split in its 28-year history.
The revolt later reached Parliament, with 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar joining the little-known NCPI. They wrote to Speaker Om Birla expressing support to the BJP-led NDA, and seeking recognition as a “separate bloc”.
Published – September 18, 2026 02:24 pm IST
