KOLKATA: The Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC on Monday unveiled a new logo featuring its interim election symbol, a football player, and asked its leaders and elected representatives to publicise it as the party seeks to build a new electoral identity after losing, for now, its familiar name and flowers-and-grass logo.The symbol features the football player at its centre, surrounded by the words ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress‘ in white against a blue background.Saffron, white and green have also been incorporated into the design, news agency PTI reported.The exercise comes days after the Election Commission froze the use of the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ name and its reserved flowers-and-grass logo amid an escalating internal dispute over control of the party.The poll panel subsequently allotted separate interim identities to the two groups for the October 6 bypolls.The Mamata faction was given ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘football player’ symbol, while the rival faction led by Arup Roy was allotted ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘envelope’ symbol, PTI reported.With only a fortnight left for the Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls, the Mamata camp is seeking to ensure that voters can connect 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 had been asked to use their respective platforms to circulate the logo and familiarise voters with the new logo.Leaders from the Mamata camp began posting the logo on social media from Monday afternoon.On September 17, the poll panel, while hearing rival claims over the Trinamool Congress, ordered that neither faction would be permitted to use the party’s existing name and symbol pending a substantive determination of the dispute.The decision came on the last day of nominations for the bypolls, prompting the EC to ask the factions to suggest alternative names and free symbols so that the electoral process could proceed,A day later, the Commission gave the two groups their temporary identities, effectively turning the party’s internal battle over ownership into a contest between two different names and symbols on the ballot.For the Mamata faction, the choice of name includes ‘Mamata’ in its interim identity, while the football-player symbol gives the faction a new visual marker to take to the electorate.The new identities will face their first direct electoral test in Rejinagar, where the two rival Trinamool factions remain in the fray.Nandigram, however, has taken a different course.Mamata Banerjee’s nominee Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew from the contest after meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, following which Banerjee extended support to Congress candidate Milan Pradhan. Pradhan was subsequently arrested in connection with cases dating back to the 2007 Nandigram land acquisition movement.The contrasting developments mean Rejinagar will see the rival Trinamool camps carry their newly assigned names and symbols into a direct contest, while in Nandigram, the Mamata camp is out of the electoral race and has extended support to a Congress candidate.The dispute has also acquired a legal dimension, with Banerjee challenging the Commission’s freeze before the Supreme Court.The apex court on Monday agreed to urgently list her plea, with the rival side also set to get an opportunity to make its submissions.That legal battle could ultimately determine what happens to the original party name and symbol. The political campaign, however, cannot wait for that resolution.The Mamata camp’s immediate task is consequently to make the football player familiar enough for voters to recognise it on October 6.The new symbol seeks to bring together Mamata’s name, the words Trinamool Congress and the unfamiliar football player as the faction heads into an election in which its traditional electoral identity has, at least temporarily, been put on hold.(With agency inputs)
