Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 18: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) will support the Congress candidate for the byelection to the West Bengal Assembly from Nandigram, the former chief minister and the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee announced on Friday soon after her party’s nominee for the seat Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew her candidature within hours after meeting the chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Besides Nandigram, the TMC would also back the Congress candidate for the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam, Ms Banerjee, a three-time chief minister, said.
The Congress had backed Ms Banerjee after the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday announced freezing of the TMC name and the symbol of “Jora Phool in Grass” ordering that neither of the TMC factions, one led by Ms Banerjee and the other by Mr Arup Roy, which include the rebel TMC members of the State Assembly led by the Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, would be allowed to use the party’s name and the symbol for the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly byelections.
On Friday, the ECI approved the name of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC as the ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and football player as symbol, while the rival faction led by Arup Roy got ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ as name and ‘envelope’ as symbol for bypoll.
The Congress leader and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi had strongly criticised the ECI after it announced freezing of the TMC name and symbol stating that it was not just Mamata Banerjee’s fight. “It’s the fight of every political party, every voter who wants free and fair elections,” Mr Gandhi had posted on social media.
The Congress leader said when an entire party can be stolen, it’s hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians can be stolen too. “Vote theft. Government theft. Now party theft—these have become symbols of our democratic decline. 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 posted on ‘X’.
Mr Gandhi recalled that first it was Shiv Sena, then the Nationalist Congress Party (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,” he said.
The Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, in a social media post, condemned this move by the Election Commission and demanded that the ECI immediately restore the party symbol to Mamata Banerjee.
“Freezing the AITC name and symbol – after a blatantly unconstitutional hijack by the BJP – is CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s late-night birthday gift to Modi ji. Those who fought against the BJP, under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership, are now being given the red carpet to rebel against her and commit the unconstitutional sin of defection with the ECI’s help,” Mr Venugopal said.
Observing that whoever opposes the BJP is dealt a fatal blow and their entire electoral existence is snatched away from them, the Congress leader said the ECI has once again proven that it was nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the BJP – a tool to destroy democracy bit by bit.
While announcing her party’s support to the Congress nominee, Ms Banerjee also mentioned the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) support to her in fight against the ECI for the original name and symbol of her party. Speaking to reporters after losing her party’s name and symbol amid battle with Ritabrata Banerjee’s faction over the real TMC, Mamata said she would neither bow her head, nor surrender and continue to fight, and would surely bounce back. Further, she said Rahul Gandhi had called her on Thursday, stressing the need for a united opposition to challenge the ruling BJP.
She also said the AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has expressed his solidarity with her after her party lost the name and symbol. Hitting out at Ritabrata, the former chief minister described his faction as A-team of BJP and called the Election Commission of India’s move as “black day” in democratic history of India.
“They do not know that I cannot leave All India Trinamool Congress. It will always be with me until I leave this world,” Mamata said. “Absolutely dirty game but we are also ready to fight it out. I want the BJP to go from India. We want solidarity in INDIA Alliance.”
“In Nandigram, we are going to give our support to Congress party. It is for the greater interest of the country. Rejinagar, I will decide later. In Assam, we are not contesting,” she added, “We had already decided to support the Congress because they have a good candidate.”
Ritabrata had rebelled against Mamata after she was ousted from power following the 2026 West Bengal elections. With both claiming they are the real TMC, the poll body has barred the two factions from using the name and symbol for the Nandigram and Rejinagar byelections.
After defecting from the Congress, Ms Banerjee had set up the Trinamool Congress with the symbol of grass and twin flowers about 28 years ago, in 1998. She defeated the Left Front government in the 2011 Assembly polls and was Chief Minister of the State for 15 years, before losing out to the in 2026 Assembly polls.
Dey, a new face, was declared as Mamata-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate for the October 6 byelection in Nandigram on Sunday. However, her move to pull out of the bypoll race has left the former chief minister’s faction in trouble and the party wouldn’t be able to name a new candidate as the last date for nominations was September 16.
Dey has not issued a statement yet on why she pulled out of the byelection race, but her move will give an advantage to the ruling BJP in Nandigram, which is considered a stronghold of Adhikari.
Despite Dey’s move, the contest in Nandigram remains a multi-cornered battle, as the TMC faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee has named Mohammad Eteshamul Haque as its candidate, while the Communist Party of India (CPI) has nominated Shanti Gopal Giri, the Congress has declared Milan Pradhan as its candidate, while Hasirani Rath, the mother of slain former aide of Suvendu Adhikari, is BJP’s nominee. The All India Secular Front (AISF) is also contesting the byelection, naming Mohammad Sabe Miraj Ali Khan as its nominee.
Adhikari had contested the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections from two seats: Nandigram and Bhabanipur. He won both seats and has decided to retain Bhabanipur, leading to the byelection in Nandigram. Along with Nandigram, byelection would also be held in Rejinagar. Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) founder Humayun Kabir had also contested from two seats: Rejinagar and Nawda winning both. He retained Nawda after which a bypoll was called for Rejinagar.
Rejinagar would also be a multi-cornered contest, with the AJUP and the BJP naming Golam Nabi Azad and Sakharav Sarkar as their candidates, respectively. Mamata’s TMC has nominated Rabiul Alam Chowdhury and Ritabrata’s faction named Saifuzzaman Saikh as the candidate. The Congress has named Mohammad Abdullahil Kafi as its candidate, while Mohammed Sayeed is the nominee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The decision to freeze the TMC name and symbol was taken by the ECI after meeting a five-member delegation led by Ritabrata Banerjee on Thursday in connection with the dispute. Ritabrata heads a group of around 60 of the 80 newly elected TMC MLAs who distanced themselves from former Chief Minister after the party’s defeat to the BJP in the Assembly polls held in April. Both factions have staked a claim to being the “real” Trinamool Congress and approached the Election Commission seeking recognition as the party’s legitimate leadership.
The EC in its interim order, after hearing leaders of the two factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy, said the matter required substantive determination by the poll body under provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968.
“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 Mamata Banerjee and the other led by Shri Arup Roy,” the interim order said.
“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. The Election Commission also said, to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests and going by the past precedent, it 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.