One led by Mamata, other by Ritabrata: How EC's ‘two-wing test’ will decide which faction is Trinamool Congress

TWo Trinamool us congress factions, apiece insisting it is the existent unity, filed contender lists of office-bearers with the Election Commission of India (EC) on Tuesday, in a procedural step that opened a formal fight over the party’s name, assets and symbol.The split cut into the West Bengal party after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide 207 seats to TMC’s 80 in the April assembly election.Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s camp has since lost 62 of the party’s 80 MLAs, the Leader of the Opposition post in the Assembly, and the mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.On Monday, the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee voted to remove Mamata Banerjee as the party chairperson and install MLA Arup Roy in her place. Mamata’s camp responded with its own list, retaining her as chairperson, even as it labelled the submission the “original but minority” list.The dispute is now expected to move to the Election Commission’s two-wing test that has been used to decide which faction gets to claim the party identity and resources.The testUnder Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, EC is empowered to decide which group is the genuine political party once a recognised party splits and rival factions both claim its name and symbol.Both TMC factions have already triggered this process — the rebel group through a letter to the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding recognition and TMC’s twin-flower symbol, and the Mamata camp through its revised and dated list of office-bearers.The poll panel will weigh the rival claims on the strength of support in two arenas: elected legislators (“legislative wing”) and the party’s formal organisational structure (“organisational wing”). Together, it is known as the two-wing test.HT has reported that the rebel faction holds 81% of TMC’s legislators.The process could take a while. Typically, the EC would issue notices to both factions, set a deadline for affidavits and evidence of organisational control, and conduct detailed hearings.In the case of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) splits in the past few years, it took months for EC to come to a final decision.Also read: Crisis-hit TMC reworks party organisation, cuts role of consultantsThe SC order behind the testThe two-wing test traces to a Congress split in 1969, when the party broke into factions after a dispute over its presidential nominee—Congress 'J', led by Jagjivan Ram, and Congress 'O', led by S. Nijalingappa. Each claimed the right to the party’s symbol, ‘two bullocks with yoke on’.The EC had to decide which group was, in official terms, the Indian National Congress.The commission first checked whether either faction had repudiated the party’s stated aims and objectives. Neither had, making that test redundant.The EC then turned to numerical strength in the two wings that gave the test its name: Congress 'J' held a majority of MPs and MLAs returned on Congress tickets nationally, even though Congress 'O' led in states such as Gujarat and Mysore. Congress 'J' also commanded the majority in the All India Congress Committee, the party's organisational body.The commission subsequently recognised Congress 'J' as the Indian National Congress on January 11, 1971.But Congress ‘O’ general secretary Sadiq Ali appealed the poll panel’s decision.A Supreme Court bench led by Justice H.R. Khanna dismissed the appeal on November 11, 1971, holding that the test of majority and numerical strength was a “relevant and valuable test” properly applied by the commission, that Paragraph 15 fell within the EC’s powers, and that an election symbol is not the property of the party that uses it.That 1971 ruling, Sadiq Ali vs Election Commission of India, remains the precedent against which party splits have been measured.Also read: Why winner-takes-all politics can weaken democracyBefore TMCThe two-wing test’s more recent applications came with the breakup of the Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra.Eknath Shinde rebelled in 2022, walking away with the bulk of Shiv Sena’s legislators and bringing down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in the state.In February 2023, the EC said it found the organisational-wing test inconclusive in Shiv Sena’s case, so it fell back on the legislative wing test, which gave a majority to the Shinde faction.Shinde kept the Shiv Sena name and the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol, while Thackeray’s faction was registered as Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) with the ‘flaming torch’ symbol.The NCP split followed the next year. Ajit Pawar left with a majority of the party’s legislators in July 2023 to join the Shinde government as deputy chief minister. The EC decided in his favour over Sharad Pawar’s faction in February 2024.Implications for TMCA contest that comes down to the legislative wing could favour the rebel faction in Trinamool Congress’s case. The faction, in its submission to the EC, had cited the TMC constitution and argued that the three-year tenure of the party’s National Working Committee had expired, and thereby, it was invalid.Whichever faction the EC recognises will likely inherit the Trinamool Congress name, the twin-flower symbol, its registered voter base, and its official status as a regional party.With a final decision pending, both factions might have to start looking at stopgap measures ahead of the Kolkata municipal elections due this year.Until an EC ruling, civil litigation over TMC’s assets cannot begin either. The ₹676 crore held in the party’s primary bank accounts is already frozen, and is likely to remain so till then.Either way, control of the Trinamool Congress brand could be settled in Delhi, not Kolkata.