A Freezing Democracy: On the Election Commission of India and West Bengal

Almost 28 years after Mamata Banerjee founded the All India Trinamool Congress and proposed its “grass and flowers” symbol, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 17 September 2026 froze the party’s name and symbol. The 14-page order said that since the two rival groups – one led by Ms Banerjee and the other Arup Roy – now claim to be a party, the matter requires a “substantive decision” and neither group can use the party’s name or symbol. ECI assigned new names and symbols to both groups. The ECI’s move effectively denied Ms. Banerjee the name and symbol of her party. For almost three decades, millions of voters believed in the name and symbol of the party, elected Ms. Banerjee three times as Chief Minister of West Bengal and sent scores to Parliament as its MPs. Even in the April 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls, 41% of the electorate, or more than 2.60 million voters, voted for Ms. Banerjee’s party, while the margin between her and the Bharatiya Janata Party was only about 32 million votes. Opposition parties, including the Congress, said that similar attempts to freeze the name and symbol were made in the case of the Shiv Sena, terming such action of freezing the name and symbol as “party theft” and a case of democratic decay.

Political parties are organic entities that keep democracy alive and well and any attempt to dissolve them is an attack on the very foundations of Indian democracy. If a political party is to disappear, it should only be by the determination of the people. Serious questions have been raised about the role of the ECI, which conducted the 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls after a hastily organized Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that left out thousands of voters, is now freezing the name and symbol of the main opposition party. Free and fair elections form the basis of the republic. When the political parties that are the engine for translating the will of the voters into free and fair elections are dismantled and stripped of their names and symbols, the ECI cannot escape responsibility or hide behind processes and practices. The BJP leadership in West Bengal has repeatedly stated that the Trinamool Congress will not exist as a party after the assembly elections. ECI’s omissions and mandates clearly indicate that it is acting in BJP’s interests.

Published – 23 Sep 2026 0:20 AM IST