The Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress Monday began taking its newly allotted “football player” symbol to voters in Rejinagar, launching a campaign to familiarise the electorate with an identity it will use for the first time in the October 6 Assembly bypoll. Party workers began painting graffiti featuring the new symbol across the constituency as the faction’s candidate, Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, hit the campaign trail. Leaders, office-bearers, elected representatives and cadres have also been asked to circulate the new logo on social media and take it to booths and households.
The exercise follows the Election Commission’s decision to temporarily freeze the “All India Trinamool Congress” name and its reserved flowers-and-grass symbol amid competing claims over control of the party. The Mamata faction has been temporarily allotted the name “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and the “football player” symbol, while the rival faction has been allotted the name “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and the “envelope” symbol.
New symbol, old connect
The new logo places a football player at the centre, with the words “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” in white against a blue background. Saffron, white and green have also been incorporated into the design. With barely two weeks between the allotment of the symbol and polling, the Mamata camp is seeking to quickly establish a connection between the unfamiliar football-player symbol and the political identity voters have long associated with the Trinamool Congress.
“The Election Commission may have changed the symbol temporarily, but it cannot change the political identity of the party or its connection with the people. Our workers are taking the new symbol to every booth and every household,” a leader from the Mamata camp said. Several leaders began posting the logo on their social media accounts Monday afternoon, while workers in Rejinagar incorporated the symbol into campaign material and wall graffiti.
Direct contest in Rejinagar
The Election Commission had on September 17 barred both factions from using the existing party name and symbol pending a substantive decision on the dispute. Since the order came during the election process, the two sides were asked to suggest alternative names and symbols, following which the Commission allotted temporary identities to them for the bypolls.
Rejinagar will provide the first electoral test of the arrangement, with the rival Trinamool factions contesting under different names and symbols. For the Mamata camp, the immediate challenge is to ensure that voters identify Chowdhury with the football-player symbol rather than looking for the familiar flowers-and-grass symbol on the ballot. The faction has sought to bridge that gap by incorporating Banerjee’s name directly into its temporary party name.
Different course in Nandigram
The Mamata faction has taken a different route in Nandigram, the other West Bengal constituency voting on October 6. Its candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew from the contest after meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, following which Banerjee announced support for Congress candidate Milan Pradhan. Pradhan was subsequently arrested in connection with cases dating back to the 2007 Nandigram agitation and has been remanded to judicial custody, making his incarceration an issue in the bypoll campaign.
In Rejinagar, however, Chowdhury remains in the contest, making the constituency the principal battleground for the Mamata faction’s effort to establish its temporary electoral identity. The contrasting developments have given the two bypolls an unusual political character — a direct contest between the rival Trinamool camps in Rejinagar and the Mamata faction backing a Congress nominee in Nandigram.
Symbol dispute in SC
The dispute over the original Trinamool name and symbol has meanwhile reached the Supreme Court, with Banerjee challenging the Election Commission’s interim order. The Supreme Court Monday agreed to urgently list her petition, with the rival side also set to get an opportunity to make its submissions.
The legal proceedings could eventually determine the future of the original party name and flowers-and-grass symbol. For the October 6 bypoll, however, the Mamata camp has begun preparing to fight under its temporary identity, leaving it with a compressed campaign to turn the football player — until now unfamiliar to its electorate — into a recognisable ballot symbol before Rejinagar votes.