Freezing democracy: On the Election Commission of India and West Bengal

Almost 28 years after Mamata Banerjee set up the All India Trinamool Congress and designed its symbol of ‘grass and flowers’, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on September 17, 2026, froze the party’s name and symbol. The 14-page order stated that since two rival groups — one led by Ms. Banerjee and the other by Arup Roy — are now claiming to be the party, the matter requires “substantive determination”, and neither group can use the party’s name or symbol. The ECI has allotted new names and symbols to both groups. The ECI’s move has effectively denied Ms. Banerjee of her party’s name and symbol. For nearly three decades, crores of voters have placed their faith in the party’s name and symbol, elected Ms. Banerjee as Chief Minister of West Bengal three times, and sent scores as its MPs to Parliament. Even in the April 2026 West Bengal Assembly polls, 41% of the electorate, or more than 2.60 crore voters, voted for Ms. Banerjee’s party, while the margin between it and the Bharatiya Janata Party was only about 32 lakh votes. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have said that similar attempts to freeze the name and symbol were made in the case of the Shiv Sena, calling such action of freezing the name and the symbol as “party theft” and a case of democratic decline.

Political parties are organic entities that keep democracy vibrant and alive and any attempts to engineer their dissolution is an attack on the very foundations of India’s democracy. If a political party has to wither away, it should happen only through the determination of the people. Serious questions have been raised about the role of the ECI, which held the West Bengal Assembly polls in 2026 after a hurriedly organised Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls that left lakhs of voters out, and is now freezing the name and symbol of the principal Opposition party. Free and fair elections form the bedrock of the republic. When political parties, which are engines for ensuring that the will of the electorate is reflected through free and fair elections, are dismantled and stripped of their names and symbols, the ECI cannot absolve itself of responsibility or hide behind processes and practices. The BJP leadership in West Bengal has repeatedly claimed that, after the Assembly polls, there would be no existence of the Trinamool Congress as a party. The ECI’s acts of omission and commission clearly suggest that it is acting in tandem with the interests of the BJP.