The Election Commission has split the Trinamool Congress into two recognised factions. Here is what the orders mean and what happens next.

The crisis began after the party’s May 2026 assembly defeat, its first since its founding on January 1, 1998. In June, 58 rebel MLAs voted to install expelled leader Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of Opposition, rejecting Mamata Banerjee’s candidate.

On September 17, the ECI froze the party’s name and its flower-and-grass symbol. A day later, it allotted interim identities. Mamata’s group became Mamata All India Trinamool Congress with a football player symbol. Ritabrata’s camp became Democratic Trinamool Congress with an envelope symbol.

The Commission calls Mamata’s camp the original but minority faction and Ritabrata’s the rebel but majority faction. The labels capture the tension between legacy and numbers.

The arrangement is interim. It covers the October 6 bye-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar. The final decision on the name and symbol will come under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order, 1968.

The Supreme Court has asked the ECI to decide within four months. Mamata Banerjee called the order a black day and vowed to fight it politically, democratically and legally.