EC meets both Trinamool factions, seeks more documents from Ritabrata grouping

Image for the purpose of representation. | Photo Credit: PTI The Election Commission on Saturday (September 12, 2026) met both factions of the Trinamool Congress, led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee, over their claim to the party name and symbol. The poll body has sought additional documents from the Ritabrata faction.The ECI met the faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee first.He said that his delegation made oral submissions before the full EC bench and responded to its queries. It showed certain documents during the deliberations, and the Commission also asked it to furnish additional papers before the end of the day.The meetings come ahead of the October 6 Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar, for which the nomination process began on Wednesday and closes on September 16.Both factions have said that they would field candidates in the upcoming byelection and have claimed the ‘joda ghash phool’ or ‘twin grass flowers’ symbol of the Trinamool Congress.Going by precedent in the Shiv Sena case, sources said the ECI was likely to freeze the party symbol temporarily.Mr. Banerjee said it has specifically requested the Commission to decide the matter before the deadline (of closure of nominations on September 16), adding that his grouping was confident of getting the Trinamool symbol.“We have played our role. We have made our submission. We will be giving some more documents today itself. Now we have to wait for the highest apex body to give a ruling”.Sources told The Hindu that the Ritabrata faction provided details of the anomalies in documents of the Mamata faction, especially related to the June 5 meeting of the Trinamool Congress Working Committee in which many office-bearers were changed by Mamata Banerjee.They said that former Trinamool MLA Chandrima Bhattacharya, who had earlier been the authorised signatory of the Mamata faction then, gave a letter on Saturday saying the June 5 meeting-related communication was false.Meanwhile, a five-member delegation of the Mamata Banerjee-led faction comprising Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghose, Saket Gokhale and advocate Abhinav Singh also met the ECI on Saturday.In a statement issued after the meeting, the Trinamool delegation said it made it very clear that there was no dispute.“There is the Mamata Banerjee led party on one side and a bunch of traitors on the other. These are the same MLAs who fought the election on a Trinamool ticket five months ago. The Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee signed the party symbol under which they fought elections. All these MLAs received Rs 25 lakh in their bank accounts from the party to contest elections,” they said.The statement further said that the five-member Trinamool 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 Trinamool Chairperson and national working committee have a five-year term. Published - September 12, 2026 07:16 pm IST