Kolkata: Election Commission is likely to issue an interim order on claims by rival Trinamool Congress factions on the party’s name, symbol and assets, members of both camps indicated on Saturday after making their submissions before the poll panel in Delhi.“The EC was anxious about passing an interim order. We strongly objected to it. We will take a call after the EC passes its order. Till the EC says otherwise, Trinamool (Mamata Banerjee camp) will contest both the Rejinagar and Nandigram bypolls with its own symbol (two flowers on a single stem rising from grass),” said party MP and senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who represented Mamata camp before the EC.Both camps said they were expecting an interim order in view of the precedent set in Oct 2022 in the dispute arising from the Shiv Sena split. Grappling with similar conflicting claims ahead of the Oct 2022 Andheri East assembly bypoll, EC had invoked paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order to freeze ‘Shiv Sena’ name and its original ‘bow-and-arrow’ symbol, barring both groups from using these till a final ownership ruling could be made. Both factions were then instructed to choose from a list of available free symbols and pick temporary names with links to the parent party. This resulted in the temporary allotment of ‘flaming torch’ symbol to Uddhav Thackeray’s faction and ‘two swords and a shield’ to Eknath Shinde camp.A year before the Sena split, following the death of Ram Vilas Paswan, a bitter feud had erupted between his son Chirag Paswan and brother Pashupati Kumar Paras over the leadership of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). Ahead of the Oct 2021 Bihar assembly bypolls, EC had used the same rationale to freeze the original ‘LJP’ party name and its ‘bungalow’ symbol, directing both camps to pick temporary names linked to the parent party and allotting them new free symbols.Trinamool seniors pointed out that while EC took around eight months to pass a final order in the Shiv Sena dispute and seven months in the NCP split, no final order was issued in the LJP case following the interim order. In Trinamool’s case, notices were issued to the rival camps on July 6.Stepping out of the meeting, rebel TMC neta Ritabrata Banerjee said, “All I can say is that in such cases, facts and supporting documents matter. Our delegation submitted most of the documents requested by the EC and we will submit the remaining papers today.” He added that they had urged EC to take a decision at the earliest, given that nominations for Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly bypolls have to be filed by Sept 16. “We presented our arguments to the best of our ability. The commission will take its decision under its constitutional authority. I am not Mamata Banerjee — I can’t predict the commission’s decision. But we feel Trinamool should not operate as a family-run party where all decisions depend on the whims of one particular person,” he said.The Mamata camp in a statement said, “The TMC delegation made it very clear that there is 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 TMC ticket five months ago under the party symbol signed by TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee. All these MLAs received Rs 25 lakh in their bank accounts from the party to contest the elections.”
