Story perspectives

Election Commission Freezes TMC Name, “Flowers and Grass” Symbol

By Drooid · Sep 18, 2026, 4:07 PM UTC · How we work

Center

BJP Denies Splitting Allegation

On Friday, the Election Commission officially froze the Trinamool Congress’s name and election symbol for the October 6 West Bengal by-polls.
The BJP rebuffed Rahul Gandhi’s X post accusing it of splitting parties and stealing votes, citing Congress’s attempts to topple governments and denying vertical split.
Paragraph 15 of 1968 Order EC gave Mamata’s faction a football-player symbol and Roy’s an envelope.

Right

Freeze Signals Split

On Friday, Election Commission froze All India Trinamool Congress’s name and its “Flowers and Grass” symbol for October 6 West Bengal by-polls.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and state minister Dilip Ghosh said the freeze shows TMC’s internal split and disintegration, blaming Congress.
Ritabrata Banerjee’s faction applied for the “Nationalist Trinamool Congress” name and “Envelope” symbol.
The coverage presented the freeze as a neutral interim step amid the party’s alleged disintegration.

Blindspot

West Bengal minister Dilip Ghosh asserted that the Trinamool Congress is disintegrating due to internal infighting and the loss of its MPs.
Within this story's sources, this angle appears mainly in Right-leaning coverage and receives less attention in Center-leaning coverage.

History

Historical Context

In 1969 the Indian National Congress split, giving Indira Gandhi’s Congress (R) a cow-and-calf symbol and Congress (O) the bullocks. The 1971 election gave Congress (R) 44% of votes and 352 seats, showing symbol impact. Now the Election Commission has frozen All India Trinamool Congress’s “Flowers and Grass” emblem and recognised factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee ahead of October 6 by-polls.

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BJP Denies Splitting Allegation

On Friday, the Election Commission officially froze the Trinamool Congress’s name and election symbol for the October 6 West Bengal by-polls.
The BJP rebuffed Rahul Gandhi’s X post accusing it of splitting parties and stealing votes, citing Congress’s attempts to topple governments and denying vertical split.
Paragraph 15 of 1968 Order EC gave Mamata’s faction a football-player symbol and Roy’s an envelope.

1 / 4