Mamata Banerjee Supreme Court AITC Symbol Plea Against EC Freeze

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has approached the Supreme Court of India against an interim order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that froze the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) name and its reserved Flowers and Grass symbol. The Mamata Banerjee Supreme Court AITC symbol petition comes ahead of Assembly bypolls in West Bengal and places a dispute over control of the party before the country's top court.

According to Bar and Bench, the petition was filed on September 18 through advocate Abhinav Singh. The report did not state when the court is expected to hear the matter.

The Election Commission passed its interim order on September 17 after hearing representatives of both sides. The dispute began when rival factions led by Banerjee and by West Bengal Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee each staked a claim to the Trinamool Congress name, its symbol and control of the organisation.

Under the Election Commission interim order, neither faction can use the All India Trinamool Congress name or the Flowers and Grass symbol in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly bypolls. The Commission has instead assigned separate names and symbols to the two groups for the contest.

The faction led by Mamata Banerjee has been allotted the name Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and the Football Player symbol. The rival faction has been allotted the name Democratic Trinamool Congress and the Envelope symbol.

The arrangement carries significance because of the Assembly bypolls to the Nandigram and Rejinagar constituencies, which are scheduled for October 6. For more international news coverage, read India Pakistan naval ship collision in the Arabian Sea.

The matter reached the Election Commission after the Ritabrata Banerjee faction asserted that the existing organisational structure of the party had ceased to be valid. The Mamata Banerjee camp contested that position and maintained that its organisational structure continues to be valid, according to the report.

The order is described as an interim arrangement. The report did not set out the grounds of the petition or say how and when the Commission will decide the wider question of who controls the party, its name and its symbol. The competing claims of the two factions could not be independently verified.

The petition now places the Trinamool Congress symbol dispute before the Supreme Court, while the interim names and symbols remain the arrangement for the October 6 bypolls unless the court orders otherwise.

Official Source: https://www.barandbench.com/