With September 16 as the last date for filing nominations, both groups have urged the ECI poll panel to take a decision at the earliest.

Updated on: Sep 13, 2026, 11:18:00 IST

Prefer HTon Google

Share via
Copy link

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday met the two factions of the Trinamool Congress staking claim to the party’s name, symbol and organisational control, ahead of the by-elections in two assembly seats in West Bengal.

This came amid an ongoing tug-of-war between the Mamata Banerjee-loyalists and the rebels led by West Bengal Leader of the Opposition, Ritabrata Banerjee preparing for their first electoral battle in the October 6 bypolls to Nandigram and Rejinagar.

“We have made our submissions. The ECI had some queries. We replied as far as possible. Only the poll panel can say whether they were satisfied with our replies. The ECI may issue an interim order. We will see what order the ECI gives and then we will decide on our future course of action,” Kalyan Banerjee, TMC MP and a member of the five-member delegation representing the Mamata-led faction, told reporters in New Delhi.

The commission is yet to pass any formal order on the dispute. With September 16 as the last date for filing nominations, both groups have urged the poll panel to take a decision at the earliest.

Mamata Banerjee's five-member delegation

The five-member delegation representing the Mamata Banerjee-led faction comprised Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghose, Saket Gokhale and advocate Abhinav Singh.

It told the commission that there was no genuine dispute to adjudicate and pointed to the party’s internal elections held every five years to elect its chairperson and subsequently the national working committee.

“The five member TMC delegation also established that internal elections have been held every five years to elect the Chairperson and subsequently the national working committee — in 2006, 2011, 2017 and 2022. This clearly establishes that the TMC Chairperson and national working committee have a five year term,” the delegation said in a statement.

It also pointed out that the rebel MLAs had contested the recent assembly election on TMC tickets using the party symbol authorised by Banerjee as chairperson. “All these MLAs had received ₹25 lakh each in their accounts from the party to fund their election campaigns,” it said.

The Mamata faction also objected to any interim order being passed while the dispute remains under consideration.

Ritabrata Banerjee calls meet with ECI “very fruitful”

The Ritabrata faction, which includes around 60 of 80 newly elected TMC MLAs who broke away after the party’s defeat to the BJP in the assembly election, said its meeting with the commission was “very fruitful”. “We won’t be able to disclose the exact contents of our deliberations with the ECI’s full bench. ‘Na khata. Na Bahi. Jo Mamata Banerjee kahe, wahi sahi’ — this attitude can’t continue in a democratic set-up. The TMC is not a family-centric party and neither anyone’s ancestral property. The party belongs to the grassroot level workers,” Ritabrata Banerjee told reporters.

“We had answered all the queries posed by the ECI. Our replies were based on facts and not on whimsies. We have submitted some documents. The poll panel has asked some more documents to be submitted by the end of the day. We will submit those too. We are hopeful”.

“As September 16 is the last day for filing nomination by candidates for the upcoming by-elections in two assembly seats, we have requested the ECI to take a decision in this regard at the earliest,” he added.

The ECI has scheduled bypolls to Rejinagar in Murshidabad district and Nandigram in East Midnapore district for October 6, with counting on October 9.

TMC dispute spills beyond party symbol

The dispute has already spilled over to control of the party office and funds, with the TMC office being closed following a confrontation between the rival factions and party accounts being frozen, according to BJP leader Dilip Ghosh.

“A tug-of-war broke out over the TMC’s party office and the office had to be closed down. A battle erupted over which faction would control the party funds and the accounts were frozen. Now another fight has broken out over the symbol. It may so happen that neither of the factions are allotted the party’s symbol. We want the TMC to be wiped out. They have done enough damage. They have polluted the politics in West Bengal,” Ghosh said.

The ECI did not comment on the developments till the time of filing this report.

See Less