New Delhi, 18 September— Even as the Election Commission of India came under fire from the opposition, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi today criticised the poll body’s interim decision to bar rival TMC factions from using the party’s name and its twin-flowers-on-grass symbol in the Bengal Assembly by polls.
“First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern—BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away”, Gandhi said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Both the Mamata Banerjee-led faction and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the All India Trinamool Congress must give options of three names and three free symbols — unused by any party — by Friday 11 am, a day before the last date to withdraw nominations for the by polls.
The Congress leader also highlighted that if an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too, backing up the ‘vote chori’ claims by Opposition parties against the BJP and the Election Commission.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that despite the EC’s constitutional responsibility to protect the people’s mandate, the poll body has been aiding the “very forces” which overturn the public verdict. “Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft—these have become symbols of our democratic decline.”
“This fight isn’t just Mamata Banerjee’s. It’s the fight of every political party, every voter who wants free and fair elections,” Gandhi added.
Mamata Banerjee has lost her party name and symbol, but gained the support of not only of the Congress but a host of opposition parties including the Cockroach Janta Party have denounced the EC’s decision.
Uttar Pradesh former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the commission could gain goodwill by taking decisions that strengthen democratic values.
“I have nothing else to say. I only want to ask has the commission received the affidavits submitted by us?” Yadav wrote on X sharing a news clipping on the EC’s interim order in the Trinamool case.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which is itself fighting a protracted legal battle in the Supreme Court over the party name and symbol, lent its support to Mamata, whose faction was handed the party to a rival faction led by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.
“She founded it (the Trinamool Congress) and decided its objectives. She also gave tickets to MLAs and MPs. But the BJP split the party. That does not mean the party belongs to the rebels. The party belongs to Mamata Banerjee,” said Sanjay Raut, Rajya Sabha MP from the Uddhav Thackeray faction.
“The poll body should not have frozen the symbol. The rebels should take some other symbol and contest the polls. Democracy is in danger if the Election Commission is giving such decisions under duress,” Raut said.
DMK MP Kanimozhi met Mamata at her 30B Harish Chatterjee Street residence in Kolkata on Wednesday before the EC’s interim order became public.
“The BJP has shredded the Constitution, social conventions and democratic norms with the assistance and full support of the constitutional bodies first tore into the people’s mandate to poach MLAs and MPs, then stole governments along with the chief ministers. Their greed has reached such levels that they are now targeting names, symbols and bank accounts of political rivals. After the Shiv Sena, LJP and NCP the same has been done by the EC on the guidance of the BJP. The saviour of democracy is now the destroyer of democracy,” said Tejashwi Yadav, RJD leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar.
“The Election Commission of India has become a government stooge. Time for its Commissioner to pay is coming very soon,” said Saurav Das, the co-convenor of CJP.
The CJP official handle on X concurred with Das. “Yes. Soon announced.”
The Congress on Thursday had termed the EC’s decision to freeze the AITC name and symbol as CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s “late-night birthday gift” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In its interim order, the EC said, “On due consideration of the totality of information available on record… the Commission is of the opinion that there are two rival groups in the All India Trinamool Congress, one led by Ms. Mamata Banerjee and the other led by Shri Arup Roy.” “Each group is now claiming to be the party, and therefore the matter requires a substantive determination by the Commission under Para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order 1968,” it said.
Accordingly, the Commission said, to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests and going by the past precedent, the Commission gave its interim order to cover the purpose of the current by-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute in the matter.
“Neither of the two groups led by Shri Arup Roy (Petitioner) and the other led by Ms. Mamata Banerjee (Respondent) shall be permitted to use the name of the party ‘All India Trinamool Congress’.
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