For 28 years, the ‘flowers and grass’ symbol has been more than an electoral mark for the Trinamool Congress. It has been the visual shorthand for Mamata Banerjee’s political journey.

Now, with the Election Commission temporarily freezing both the symbol and the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ name ahead of the October 6 West Bengal bypolls, the party has been forced to look for an alternative, even as it challenges the move. 

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress submitted its choices of new names and symbols to the Election Commission late Thursday night, with the response being sent by email at 11.36 pm.

The party submitted the choices ‘under strongest protest’, according to sources.

The submission came hours after the Election Commission issued an interim order directing both sides in the dispute over the All India Trinamool Congress not to use the party name or its ‘flowers and grass’ symbol for the upcoming bypolls in Rejinagar and Nandigram.

The two constituencies are scheduled to go to the polls on October 6.

Under the interim arrangement, the proposed alternative party name can be similar to ‘All India Trinamool Congress’, while the symbol has to be selected from the Election Commission’s list of free symbols available to independents and registered unrecognised political parties.

The Commission has asked the rival sides to submit their preferred names and symbols by Friday morning.

The poll panel said there was insufficient time to complete proceedings under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, but stressed that an immediate arrangement was necessary because of the approaching by-elections.

The interim order is specifically applicable to the two upcoming bypolls and will remain in force until the Commission reaches a final decision on the dispute under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order.

How the TMC reached this point

The EC’s intervention comes after an extraordinary rebellion within the Trinamool Congress that began in its legislature party following the Assembly election defeat in May and subsequently spilled into Parliament.

In June, 58 rebel MLAs elected expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition, rejecting the Mamata camp’s nominee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay. The move was subsequently recognised by the Assembly Speaker, marking the first split in the TMC’s 28-year history.

The rupture widened just five days later, this time in Parliament.

As many as 20 Lok Sabha MPs led by senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar joined the little-known NCPI and wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, backing the BJP-led NDA as a ‘separate bloc’. The development further deepened the divide within the party’s parliamentary ranks.

The dispute eventually reached the question of who could legitimately claim the TMC’s name and electoral symbol.

A symbol that defined the TMC

The ‘flowers and grass’ symbol has been closely associated with Mamata Banerjee and the TMC since the party was formed in 1998 after breaking away from the Congress.

The hand-drawn symbol became an enduring representation of the party’s grassroots political identity over the past 28 years.

Its temporary freezing now creates an unusual situation for the party, with the Mamata camp having to enter the October 6 bypolls without the electoral symbol that voters have associated with the TMC for nearly three decades.

For now, the Commission’s interim arrangement means neither faction can use the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ name or the ‘flowers and grass’ symbol for the upcoming contests.

The final decision on the underlying dispute, however, remains pending under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order.