The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called both factions of the Trinamool Congress — one led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the other by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee – for hearings again on Thursday (September 17, 2026).
The ECI met both factions on Saturday (September 12, 2026) over their claim on the party name and symbol. The poll body had sought additional documents from the Ritabrata faction. Mr. Ritabrata claims the support of nearly 65 of the 80 Trinamool MLAs in the 294-member Assembly.
In separate letters dated September 16 to both factions, the poll body asked the Ritabrata team to reach the EC headquarters in Delhi at 3 p.m. and the Mamata-led grouping at 4 p.m.
Bypolls soon
The meetings come ahead of the October 6 Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar, for which the nomination process closed on Wednesday (September 16, 2026). Both factions have fielded candidates in the upcoming bypolls.
Going by the precedence in the Shiv Sena case, sources said the EC was likely to freeze the party symbol temporarily.
Sources had told The Hindu that the Ritabrata faction provided details of the anomalies in documents of the Mamata faction at the Saturday (September 12, 2026) meeting with the ECI. These were specifically related to the June 5 meeting of Trinamool Working Committee in which many office-bearers were changed by Ms. Banerjee.
After the meeting, the Mamata faction had made it very clear that there was “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 Trinamool ticket five months ago. All these MLAs received ₹25 lakh in their bank accounts from the party to contest elections,” they said.
Published – September 16, 2026 11:01 pm IST
