Mamata’s faction of Trinamool Congress unveils new logo, seeks to familiarize voters with ‘football player’ symbol

Former Chief Minister of West Bengal and leader of the All India Trinamool Congress faction Mamata Banerjee. File | Photo credit: PTI

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction on Monday (21 September 2026) unveiled a new logo featuring its interim election symbol – a football player – and asked its leaders and elected representatives to make it public as the party races to build a new electoral identity after losing its familiar name and symbol of flowers and grass.

The logo places the footballer in the center and is surrounded by the words “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” in white on a blue background. Saffron, white and green were also incorporated into the design.

The exercise comes days after the Election Commission (EC) froze the use of the name “All India Trinamool Congress” and its reserved symbol of flowers and grass amid an escalating internal dispute over control of the party.

The election body subsequently assigned separate temporary identities to the two groups for the by-polls on 6 October, with the Mamata faction getting the “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and the “football player” symbol, while the rival Arup Roy-led faction was given the “Trinamool Democratic Congress” and the “envelope” symbol.

With only a fortnight left for the Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls, Mamata’s camp is trying to ensure that voters can associate the new symbol with the political identity they have traditionally associated with the Trinamool Congress.

Party sources said all office bearers, leaders, workers and elected representatives have been asked to use their respective platforms to disseminate the logo and familiarize voters with the new symbol.

Leaders from the Mamata camp started posting the logo on social media from Monday afternoon.

On 17 September, the EC heard competing claims to the Trinamool Congress and later ordered that no faction would be allowed to use the party’s existing name and symbol until the dispute was decided on the merits.

The decision came on the last day of nominations to polling stations, prompting the election panel to ask factions to suggest alternative names and free symbols to allow the election process to continue.

A day later, the Commission gave the two groups their temporary identities.

For the Mamata faction, the very choice of name carries an unmistakable political message. “Mamata” has been inserted into the party’s interim identity, with the leader’s name placed where the old organizational tag used to be, while the footballer symbol gives the faction a new visual brand to appeal to voters.

The timing leaves little room for a slow transition.

The new identities will face their first direct electoral test in Rejinagar, where two rival Trinamool factions remain at loggerheads.

However, Nandigram took a markedly different course.

Mamata Banerjee’s nominee Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew from the contest after meeting Chief Minister Suvenda Adhikari, after which Banerjee extended support to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan. Mr. Pradhan was subsequently arrested in connection with cases dating back to 2007 by the Nandigram land acquisition movement.

The contrasting developments have given the bypolls an unusual political texture: Rejinagar will see the rival Trinamool camps bring their newly assigned names and symbols into a head-to-head fight, while in Nandigram the Mamata camp is effectively out of the race and throwing its weight behind the Congress candidate.

The dispute also took on a legal dimension, with Ms. Banerjee challenging the Commission’s freeze in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to fast-track her petition, giving the opposing party an opportunity to file.

This legal battle could ultimately determine what happens to the party’s original name and symbol. But the political campaign cannot wait for this resolution.

The immediate task of the Mamata camp is therefore to make the footballer aware enough that the voters will recognize him on October 6.

The challenge is particularly significant for a party whose symbol has been one of the most recognizable visual symbols of Bengali politics for years.

The new logo seeks to compress that transition into a single image — Mamata’s name, the words Trinamool Congress and an unknown football player — as the faction heads into an election in which its traditional electoral identity has been put on hold, at least temporarily.

Published – 21 Sep 2026 18:27 IST