NEW DELHI:
Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday criticised the Election Commission’s interim order preventing rival factions of the Trinamool Congress from using the party’s name and the ‘Flowers and Grass’ election symbol in the upcoming West Bengal bypolls.
Reacting to the order, Gandhi alleged that a similar pattern had been witnessed in the disputes involving the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party. “First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress,” he said, alleging that the BJP and the Election Commission were joining forces to split parties and subsequently take away their election symbols. These were Gandhi’s political allegations and were not established findings in the Election Commission’s order.
Gandhi said that if an entire political party could be “stolen”, it was hardly surprising that allegations were also being raised about votes. He described “vote chori, government chori and now party chori” as symbols of what he termed democratic decline.
He also said the Election Commission had a constitutional responsibility to protect the mandate of voters, but alleged that the poll body was instead assisting forces that overturn the people’s verdict. Gandhi said the issue was not limited to Mamata Banerjee and described it as a matter concerning political parties and voters seeking free and fair elections.
The Election Commission’s interim order followed competing claims by two factions of the All India Trinamool Congress led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. The Commission said both groups were claiming to be the party and that the dispute required a substantive determination under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
As an interim measure for the upcoming bypolls, the Commission directed that neither faction would be allowed to use the name ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ or the reserved ‘Flowers and Grass’ symbol. The arrangement will remain in force until the Commission reaches a final determination on the dispute.
The Congress had earlier criticised the Election Commission’s decision, describing the freezing of the TMC name and symbol as an abdication of the poll body’s constitutional responsibility. The party has also questioned the timing of the order.
The Election Commission, however, said its interim decision was intended to place the two rival groups on an equal footing and protect their respective rights and interests during the bypolls. Both factions have been asked to contest under separate names and symbols allotted through the Commission’s process until the larger dispute is settled.