New Delhi, 24 September (H.S.): The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India to take an early decision on the dispute over the name and election symbol of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant asked the poll panel to decide the matter within a specified timeframe. The case will next be heard on September 28.

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mamata Banerjee, submitted that the Election Commission was delaying its decision in the matter. He suggested that the Commission should conduct day-to-day hearings. The Court then asked the Election Commission how much time it would require to decide the dispute and directed it to provide a definite timeframe. The Bench observed that all parties should be given adequate opportunity to present their cases, but the proceedings could not be prolonged indefinitely.

Mamata Banerjee has challenged the Election Commission’s decision to freeze the party’s name and election symbol amid a dispute between two rival factions of the Trinamool Congress. On September 18, the poll panel allotted separate names and symbols to the two factions. A day earlier, on September 17, the Election Commission had barred both groups from using the name ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ and its reserved election symbol until a final decision was reached in the dispute. In its interim order, after hearing representatives of the factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy, the Commission said the matter required a substantive determination under the provisions governing the reservation and allotment of election symbols.

In her petition, Mamata Banerjee has named the Election Commission and West Bengal Assembly Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee as respondents.

In June, 58 rebel MLAs elected expelled party leader Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, replacing the Mamata Banerjee faction’s nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, and secured recognition from the Speaker. The development marked the first formal split in the TMC’s 28-year history.

A few days later, the rebellion extended to Parliament as well. Twenty Lok Sabha MPs, led by Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, joined the lesser-known NCPI and wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressing support for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as a separate group, further deepening the division within the party’s parliamentary wing.

The Supreme Court’s direction comes against the backdrop of the Election Commission’s interim arrangement, under which the two rival factions have been assigned separate names and symbols pending a substantive determination of the dispute.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar