The story so far:

On June 3, 58 Trinamool Congress MLAs submitted a letter to the West Bengal Assembly speaker nominating Uluberia Purba MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. This was against the party’s earlier decision to nominate 10-time MLA and veteran leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay to the position on May 20.

The “rebel” MLAs blamed the party’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, primarily for striking out on their own. On June 22, the “rebel” group removed Mamata Banerjee, who founded the party in 1998 as the Trinamool chairperson, appointing their own national working committee of the party. The following day, they moved the Election Commission of India to lay claim to the party name and symbol.

What is the Rebel Faction’s Stand?

Ritabrata Banerjee said that the Trinamool Congress’s Constitution mandated reconstitution of the national working committee every three years, and the last reconstitution was done in February 2022. Arun Roy, a one-time close aide of Ms. Mamata Banerjee, was appointed as chairperson by this group in its June 22nd meeting.

What is the Mamata Banerjee’s faction stand?

The group aligned with Ms. Mamata Banerjee is leaning on Subhash Desai v. Principal Secretary, Governor of Maharashtra (2023) judgement by a five-bench Constitution Bench on the Shiv Sena party rift. The Court ruled that even if a majority of elected MLAs or MPs split into a faction, they cannot claim to be the original political party merely by virtue of their numerical strength in the House. They said that the legislative party is elected because of its association with the political party. They would have gotten votes based on the reputation, promises, and the general good faith the people vest in a party.

After being voted in, Members cannot suddenly decide they no longer belong to that party. According to sources, the Mamata Banerjee faction has decided not to go to court for now against the Ritarbarta Banerjee faction. “It is a comedy show. A man who has been expelled from the TMC is holding a special session. We do not give any importance to such comical behaviour. TMC=Mamta Banerjee. All else is a circus,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said. They claim that, as per the procedure, following the national working committee meeting of the party on June 20th, on Monday (June 22, 202), they informed the Election Commission of India of the changes made in the organisation- including appointment of two joint secretaries - Dola Sena and Derek O’ Brien.

How does ECI settle such claims

The Election Commission of India recognises political parties and allots symbols under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Under Paragraph 15 of the Order, it can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol. The ECI is the only authority to decide issues on a dispute or a merger under Paragraph 15. The Supreme Court upheld its validity in Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI in 1971.

What is a political party

As per the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a “political party is an association or a body of individual citizens of India registered with the Election Commission as a political party.” This definition leaves room for interpretation. Is the political party only a collective of legislators and parliamentarians elected on the party symbol, or is it the larger organisation.

What aspects is the ECI supposed to consider before recognising one group as the official party?

The ECI has to take a two-pronged approach. It has to ascertain whether any of the rival factions enjoy a two-thirds majority in its organisational wing as well as in its legislative wing.

For the organisation wing, the Commission examines the party’s constitution and its list of office-bearers submitted when the party was united. It identifies the apex committee(s) in the organisation and finds out how many office-bearers, members or delegates support the rival claimants. For the legislative wing, the party goes by the number of MPs and MLAs in the rival camps. It may consider affidavits filed by these members to ascertain where they stand. While deciding the dispute in favour of one faction by holding that it commands enough support in its organisational and legislative wings to be entitled to the name and symbol of the recognised party, it may permit the other group to register itself as a separate political party.

What happens when there is no certainty about the majority of either faction?

Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the ECI may freeze the party’s symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.