The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday (September 28, 2026) to decide the leadership dispute between former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Ritabrata Banerjee, who leads a rival camp of legislators, in three months, after the parties complete their pleadings.

Election Commission bars both factions of Trinamool from using party name, symbol for byelections A three-judge Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant gave the rival factions four weeks from September 28 to file any additional responses, affidavits, counter-affidavits and other pleadings before the poll body.

Thereafter, the Bench ordered, the ECI would take three months to “decide the controversy”.

The court refused repeated requests made by senior advocate D.S.

Naidu, for the poll body, to at least give five or six months instead of the three-month window.

Naidu.

Mr.

Naidu said the ECI would make “every endeavour” to complete the proceedings within the court-stipulated time.

He, however, said the ECI’s resources were stretched thin due to upcoming elections in five States.

“Some of these are big,” he submitted.

The court also declined a plea by senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Mr.

Banerjee’s faction, for six weeks, instead of four, to file their pleadings before the ECI.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Kalyan Banerjee, for Ms.

Mamata Banerjee, said their client had filed responses to the EC’s notice in the dispute in July itself.

Interests of a political party being served, says Mamata after losing TMC name and symbol; vows to fight back “You (the Ritabrata Banerjee faction) are yet to file, and delaying,” Mr.

Sibal said.

In the previous hearing, the court had signalled it unlikely that it would stay the ECI’s September 17 interim stay order on the All India Trinamool Congress’s (AITC) ‘flowers and grass’ party symbol.

It had, however, asked the poll body to come up with a reasonable timeline to adjudicate the leadership dispute between the rival camps of legislators.

Hearing Ms.

Mamata Banerjee’s petition against the interim stay, the CJI had pointed to paragraph 39 of the ECI’s order, which concluded that the freezing of the party symbol was necessary to place “both the rival groups on even keel and to protect their rights and interests”.

Ritabrata faction welcomes Trinamool name and symbol freeze; Mamata faction calls move contrary to law The ECI had directed that the interim order passed under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, would be in operation during the current by-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute over the party.

The poll body had said neither group could simpliciter use the name of the party, the ‘All India Trinamool Congress’ (AITC), nor avail the reserved AITC party symbol of ‘flowers and grass’.

The ECI allotted new names and symbols to the two factions of the Trinamool Congress on September 18.

Ms.

Mamata Banerjee’s faction got the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ with ‘football player’ as its symbol, while Mr.

Ritabrata Banerjee’s group was allotted the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ with the ‘envelope’ symbol.