Kolkata, Sep 28 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Calcutta High Court on Monday reserved its verdict after concluding the hearing on the All India Secular Front's (AISF) plea challenging the Election Commission of India's decision to withdraw the "envelope" symbol allotted to it and give it instead to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction ahead of the bypolls for Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies.
The single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao, despite keeping the judgment on reserve, once again expressed anguish over the ECI’s decision in the matter, which had led to a political row in West Bengal.
During the hearing on Monday, he said that the controversy in the matter would not have arisen if the ECI had kept the symbol on freeze without allotting it to anybody.
Justice Rao also questioned the justification behind allotting the symbol to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool when the AISF had contested in the last few elections on that symbol.
Justice Rao said that when the envelope was among the free symbols, then why was it allotted to another party after being allotted earlier to a particular party?
However, the ECI’s counsel argued that no party can be allotted a free symbol more than twice.
In the petition filed by Nawsad Siddique, the lone AISF legislator in the West Bengal assembly, the main contention was how the ECI could allot the envelope symbol, when he contested and got elected twice in 2021 and 2026 with it.
Earlier this month, the ECI announced its decision to freeze the Trinamool's official name of the "All India Trinamool Congress" and the electoral symbol of "Flowers & Grass".
The 'original but minority' faction of the Trinamool led by the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, was allotted the name "Mamata All India Trinamool Congress" and the symbol "football player".
On the other hand, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction was allotted the name “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and the "envelop" as its electoral symbol.
Siddique got irked by that decision and approached the Calcutta High Court challenging it.
Source: IANS
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