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Rahul Gandhi attacked the Election Commission over its interim order barring rival TMC factions from using the party name and Flowers and Grass symbol in Bengal bypolls.
Rahul Gandhi slams EC for barring both faction of TMC from using the party’s name and symbol (Photo: PTI)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has slammed the Election Commission’s interim order temporarily barring both factions of the Trinamool Congress from using the party’s name and its “flowers and grass” election symbol in the upcoming West Bengal bypolls.
Reacting to the development in a post on X, Gandhi alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission were following a pattern of splitting political parties and subsequently taking away their election symbols.
“First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress,” Gandhi wrote.
“Every time, the same pattern – BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away.”
Gandhi’s remarks came after the Election Commission issued an interim order on Thursday night in the dispute between rival factions of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy.
The poll panel said the dispute required substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
Pending that determination, neither faction will be permitted to use the name “All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)” or the reserved “Flowers and Grass” symbol in the October 6 West Bengal bypolls.
The two factions were directed to submit three preferred names and three free symbols by 11 am on September 18.
The proposed names could retain a linkage with the parent party, while the symbols had to be selected from the Election Commission’s list of free symbols.
Gandhi, in his post, went beyond the immediate dispute over the party’s name and symbol and linked it to his broader concerns about the electoral process.
“When an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too,” he wrote.
He then described what he sees as a broader deterioration in democratic institutions, writing: “Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft – these have become symbols of our democratic decline.”
Gandhi also directly questioned the Election Commission’s role in the dispute.
“The ECI’s constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate – but instead, it’s aiding those very forces that overturn the people’s verdict,” he said.
He concluded his post by framing the TMC dispute as an issue extending beyond Mamata Banerjee and her party.
“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 wrote.
First Shiv Sena, then NCP and now Trinamool Congress. Every time the same pattern – BJP and Election Commission together break a party. Then his election symbol is snatched away.
When an entire party can be stolen, then it is not surprising that the votes of crores of Indians are stolen.
Vote theft. Government theft.
—Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 18, 2026
The Election Commission’s interim order came after an internal rebellion in the TMC that began following the party’s defeat in the Assembly election in May and subsequently spread to Parliament.
According to news agency PTI, 58 rebel MLAs in June elected expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition instead of the Mamata camp’s nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.
The move was recognised by the Assembly Speaker and marked the first major split in the TMC’s 28-year history.
Five days later, the dispute reached Parliament, with 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar joining the little-known NCPI and writing to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in support of the BJP-led NDA as a “separate bloc”.
The dispute has now extended to the TMC’s electoral identity, with the rival factions required to contest the upcoming bypolls using different names and symbols.
The Mamata Banerjee-led faction subsequently submitted its choices of alternative names and symbols to the Election Commission “under strongest protest”, according to sources cited by PTI.
The party emailed its choices at 11.36 pm on Thursday.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee rejected the Election Commission’s interim order, calling it “illegal” and “contrary to law” and saying there were “so many legal infirmities”.
He also said the faction would submit its response by the stipulated deadline.
The rival faction, however, accepted the order.
TMC MLA and West Bengal Assembly chief whip Akhruzzaman Ansari said his camp had wanted the “flowers and grass” symbol but expressed confidence that it would eventually receive what he called the party’s “official and original name and symbol”.
Quick Answers
Ask News18The Election Commission issued an interim order freezing the “All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)” name and its “flowers and grass” symbol due to an ongoing dispute between rival factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. The poll panel stated that the dispute requires substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Pending this final decision, neither faction can use the original name or symbol in the upcoming October 6 West Bengal bypolls.
Ask News18About the Author
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has more than 10 years of experience in national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
September 18, 2026, 10:26 IST
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