Kolkata, July 1 (IANS) The “rebel but majority” faction in Trinamool Congress’s legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly led by the expelled party legislator, Ritabrata Banerjee, will meet the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the Commission’s headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday to stake claim on the logo and funds of the party.

Earlier, the “rebel but majority” faction in Trinamool Congress had sought an appointment with the full bench of the Commission in the matter. Ritabrata informed that finally the Commission had fixed Thursday as the day to meet the rebel faction and listen to their argument in the matter.

A team of 10 legislators from the rebel camp led by Ritabrata will be leaving for New Delhi on Wednesday evening to attend the meeting with the ECI’s full bench on Thursday.

On June 22, this rebel group of Trinamool Congress legislators had formed a new National Working Committee in its own way, consisting of 30 members and a sub-committee of 10 members.

In the new committee, the name of the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, was removed as the party’s national chairperson and veteran party legislator Arup Roy was named for that chair.

Since then, the conflict has reached its peak. A team of lawyers have already submitted all the resolutions and legal documents on behalf of the rebel Trinamool Congress to the ECI’s office.

Trinamool Congress currently has 80 legislators in the West Bengal Assembly, out of which 60 are officially in the rebel camp, while 20 are in the “original and minority” faction, which is continuing with its allegiance towards Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

The main legal tussle in the matter is over control of the party’s name and election symbol. According to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order of 1968, a regional party needs to have at least six per cent of the valid votes and at least two MLAs to retain the symbol. Statistics say that in the last elections, the total votes polled in the state were about 6.30 crore, of which six per cent were 37.80 lakh.

The rebel camp of Trinamool Congress legislators claims that they currently have more than 60 MLAs on their side, and even if the average vote received by each MLA is reduced to 80,000, the total votes in their favour come to about 48 lakhs, which is comfortably above the six per cent limit set by the Commission.

On the other hand, according to the rebel camp, the ‘original but minority’ faction has just 20 MLAs on its side. As a result, their votes will not come close to 37 lakhs, which means the rebel faction is way ahead of the original faction in this number game.

–IANS

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