Kolkata, Sep 12 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) will meet delegations of the two factions of the Trinamool Congress in New Delhi on Saturday, and a decision on the party’s name and symbol may be taken by the poll panel.
First, the rebel faction led by the party’s expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee and second the original faction led by former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee will meet the ECI at the same venue in New Delhi today within a gap of one hour.
While the time fixed for the meeting with the Ritabrata-led faction is 11 a.m. today, the time allotted for the Mamata Banerjee-led faction is 12 noon.
The venue of the meetings with both the factions of the Trinamool Congress is the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) in the national Capital.
Although in its communications to both the factions on September 9, 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 on October 6, with the last date of filing nominations being September 16.
Political observers say that the ECI has two options amid the forthcoming bypolls for these two constituencies.
“The first option is allotting the official ‘grassroots’ symbol to any of the two rival Trinamool Congress factions. In that case, the faction to whom the symbol will be allotted will be able to contest the bypolls with that official symbol. The second option is not allotting the symbol to any of the factions for the time being before a final decision in the matter is taken. In that case, neither of the two factions will be able to contest the bypolls with that official symbol,” a city-based observer noted.
The Congress has already named its candidates for both Nandigram and Rejinagar. On the other hand, Humayun Kabir-floated Aam Janata Unnayan Party has also announced the name of its candidate from Rejinagar.
–IANS
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