Supreme Court Seeks Timeline from ECI on TMC Name and Symbol Dispute

New Delhi, September 24: The Supreme Court declined to interfere with the Election Commission’s interim arrangement freezing the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) name and ‘Flowers & Grass’ election symbol amid a dispute between rival factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee. The bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant asked the Election Commission to specify a reasonable timeline for final adjudication of the dispute. The court stressed that the matter should not be delayed indefinitely and referred to the consequences of prolonged proceedings in the Shiv Sena dispute. The ECI’s interim arrangement remains applicable to the upcoming West Bengal bypolls, while the substantive dispute over the party’s name and symbol is yet to be finally decided.