The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up urgently a petition filed by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee against the Election Commission’s order freezing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party name and its “grass, two flowers” symbol.
According to the report, the dispute follows a split within the party after the recent Assembly election in West Bengal. Of the party’s 80 MLAs, 60 are said to be backing Rithapratha Banerjee, who is currently the Leader of the Opposition.
With by-elections scheduled on October 6 for the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies, both factions approached the Election Commission claiming rights over the party name and symbol. The Commission imposed an interim bar on both sides from using the name and symbol for the bypolls and allotted new names and symbols to each.
Mamata Banerjee challenged this decision in the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her, sought an urgent hearing, questioning why the freeze was imposed soon after the bypolls were announced.
A bench led by Chief Justice Suryakant, with Justices Jaymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, agreed to hear the matter urgently, while cautioning counsel not to argue the merits at that stage.
