Ahead of Bengal bypolls, TMC name, symbol are frozen by EC

Why in the News

The Election Commission of India (EC) has ordered an interim freeze on the name and the election symbol of the All India Trinamool Congress, and directed the two rival factions to select new names and new symbols until the dispute is resolved. The order records that two rival groups exist inside the party, one led by Mamata Banerjee and the other led by Arup Roy, and that each group now claims to be the party. The Commission held that this requires a substantive determination under Para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, and that there is not enough time to make that determination before the polls. The freeze comes ten days after the Commission announced bypolls in the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies of West Bengal for 6 October, for which both factions have already nominated candidates. The contest is therefore fought without the label and the symbol that identify the party to the voter, and the question of who the party actually is remains open.

What is Para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968?

1. About: Para 15 is the provision under which the Election Commission decides a dispute between rival sections of a registered political party, each claiming to be that party.
2. What it settles: The determination decides which group is entitled to the party’s name and its reserved symbol, and that decision binds all the rival sections.
3. Interim power: Where the Commission cannot decide the claim in time, it may freeze the disputed name and symbol and allot the rival groups substitute names and symbols for the election at hand.
4. Free symbols: A substitute symbol is drawn from the list of free symbols the Commission notifies for an election, which are symbols not reserved to any recognised party.

What did the Election Commission actually order?

1. Neither group keeps the label: Neither faction may use the name All India Trinamool Congress or the party’s “flowers and grass” symbol until the dispute is decided.
2. New names, with a permitted link: Each group may be known by a name of its own choosing, and may include a linkage with the parent party’s name in that choice.
3. New symbols from the free list: Each group is to be allotted a different symbol chosen from the list of free symbols notified for the current bypolls.
4. A one day window: Both sides were asked to submit their preferences for names and symbols by 11 am on Friday, which places the choice days before the poll.
5. The stated rationale: The Commission recorded that the freeze places both rival groups on an even keel, protects their rights and interests, and follows past precedence.

How did the split inside the party arise?

1. Trigger, an electoral defeat: The split emerged soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the West Bengal Assembly elections in May.
2. A legislature party revolt: On 3 June, around 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs rebelled against the party leadership.
3. Recognition inside the House: The rebels chose Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and secured recognition for that choice from the Assembly Speaker.
4. A rival organisational claim: The rebel faction later declared Arup Roy the party chairperson, which converted a legislature party revolt into a claim over the party itself.
5. The counter claim on record: The Commission’s order notes that Mamata Banerjee informed it on 23 June that the party’s national working committee had met on 20 June and that office bearers and committee members had been declared.

Why did the poll calendar force an interim order rather than a decision?

1. Both factions are already contestants: Each group has nominated candidates for Nandigram and Rejinagar, so the Commission had to allot each of them something to contest under.
2. Time, not merits, decided the form of the order: The Commission held that the dispute could not be substantively resolved before the bypolls, so it chose a freeze over an award.
3. The objection on record: The Mamata Banerjee faction told the Commission at a meeting the same day that no interim order should be passed.
4. Representation at the hearing: The Arup Roy faction was represented before the Commission by the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.

Challenges to symbol dispute adjudication under the Symbols Order

1. No outer time limit: Para 15 fixes no deadline for deciding a claim, so a freeze can run across an entire election cycle. Eg. The Shiv Sena dispute that began in mid 2022 was decided by a final Commission order only in February 2023.
   The Fix: Insert an outer time limit in the Symbols Order for deciding a Para 15 reference, with an interim freeze lapsing if it is crossed.
2. The majority test favours the legislature wing: The test applied since Sadiq Ali v. Election Commission of India (1971) turns on numerical majority in the organisational and legislature wings, and the side holding the legislators usually prevails. Eg. The Nationalist Congress Party name and its clock symbol went in February 2024 to the faction holding the larger number of legislators.
   The Fix: Anchor the organisational wing test in audited membership and internal election records rather than in affidavits of support collected after the split.
3. Party internal records are self reported: The Commission decides who the party is largely from lists of office bearers the party itself files, which no external authority audits. Eg. The present order rests in part on an intimation of national working committee appointments filed by one faction.
   The Fix: Require every registered party to file audited internal election records annually as a condition of retaining registration.
4. The voter bears the cost of a freeze: A freeze removes the name and symbol a voter recognises at the exact moment the voter has to identify a candidate. Eg. Both factions here must pick substitute symbols within a day of the order and campaign on them.
   The Fix: Where a freeze falls inside a notified poll, allow each group to carry a printed reference to the parent party name on the ballot alongside the new symbol.

Conclusion

An interim freeze decides nothing about ownership of a party. It only removes the disputed asset from both claimants so that neither gains an advantage at a poll the Commission could not decide in time for. The substantive question, which group is the All India Trinamool Congress for the purposes of the Symbols Order, is still to be determined. The marker to watch is the Commission’s Para 15 determination after the bypolls, and whether the organisational records filed by each side or the strength of the legislature party decides it.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2022, GS2, 15] While the national political parties in India favour centralisation, the regional parties are in favour of State autonomy. Comment.”