Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will meet delegations of the two factions of the Trinamool Congress in New Delhi Thursday and a decision on the party’s name and symbol may be taken by the poll panel following the meeting.
First, the “rebel but majority faction” led by the party’s expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee will meet the full bench of the ECI at 3 pm Thursday at ECI’s headquarters at Ashoka Road in New Delhi.
Thereafter, the party’s “original but minority” faction led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee will meet the ECI’s full bench at the same venue in New Delhi Thursday within a gap of an hour at 4 p.m.
Although in its communications to both the Trinamool Congress factions Wednesday, the ECI Secretary Ashwani Kumar Mohal had not stated the agendas for the meetings, ECI insiders said that the discussions will be in relation to the arguments of both the delegations in favour of their claims for the party name and symbol.
Each faction in the meeting will be represented by a five-member delegation.
The Commission will decide on the fate of the party name and symbol only after hearing both the sides.
Both the meetings are extremely crucial considering that bypolls for the Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district and the Rejinagar Assembly Constituency are scheduled October 6.
Already both the factions have fielded candidates for the bypolls from both the Assembly constituencies, the last date of filing nominations which was held Wednesday.
Rabiul Alam Chowdhury is the candidate from the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in the Trinamool Congress from Rejinagar, Sheikh Saifuddin is the candidate from the Ritabrata-led faction from the same constituency.
On the other hand, in case of Nandigram, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, is the candidate from the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in the Trinamool Congress, Mohammad Etesamul Haque is the candidate from the Ritabrata-led faction from the constituency.
