Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday criticised the Election Commission’s decision to bar rival Trinamool Congress factions from using the party’s name and its ‘flowers and grass’ symbol during the West Bengal bypolls.
Gandhi alleged that the poll panel was failing in its constitutional duty to protect the people’s mandate and was instead assisting forces that, according to him, sought to overturn electoral verdicts.
“First Shiv Sena, then 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,” Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said that if an entire political party could be “stolen”, it was hardly surprising that the votes of millions of Indians could also be “stolen”.
“Vote chori. Government chori. Now party chori — these have become symbols of our democratic decline,” Gandhi said.
"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 said.
"This fight isn't just Mamata Banerjee's. It's the fight of every political party, every voter who wants free and fair elections," Gandhi said.
The Congress had also criticised the Election Commission’s decision on Thursday, alleging that freezing the All India Trinamool Congress’ name and symbol amounted to an abdication of the poll body’s constitutional responsibility. The party also described the decision by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as his “late night birthday gift” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Election Commission issued an interim order on Thursday night after hearing representatives of two rival AITC factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. It said both groups were claiming to represent the party and that the dispute required substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
The Commission said the interim arrangement was intended to place the two factions on an equal footing, protect their rights and interests, and apply only for the current by-elections until a final decision was taken on the dispute.
"Neither of the two groups led by Shri Arup Roy (Petitioner) and the other led by Ms. Mamata Banerjee (Respondent) shall be permitted to use the name of the party 'All India Trinamool Congress'.
The factions have been asked to submit their preferred names and symbols to the Election Commission for the polls.
