Published : 18 Sep 2026, 07:55 PM
Updated : 18 Sep 2026, 07:55 PM
Mamata Banerjee's faction of the divided Trinamool Congress suffered another blow on Friday as its Nandigram bypoll candidate withdrew from the race, hours after the Election Commission froze the party's name and symbol.
Sanchita Pradhan Dey, a teacher who lost her job in a recruitment scandal involving 26,000 educators, had been named as the faction's candidate for the West Bengal assembly seat just days earlier, reports NDTV.
Her withdrawal came as Banerjee was addressing a press conference to slam the Election Commission's decision.
Nandigram holds particular significance for Banerjee -- it is the constituency where she lost to former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari, now the BJP chief minister of West Bengal, in the 2021 assembly elections.
In a surprise announcement mid-press conference, Banerjee said her faction would back the Congress candidate in Nandigram -- a shift that would have seemed unlikely months ago, when the two parties were at odds in the state despite being part of the national-level INDIA opposition bloc.
"We have taken this decision within the party. The Congress does not know," she said, adding that Rahul Gandhi had called her the previous day but Nandigram was not discussed.
Banerjee also lashed out at the Election Commission, calling its interim order freezing the Trinamool name and symbol illegal, and alleging the BJP was behind the move.
"How can they seize my party symbol of 29 years? These are dirty tricks. We won't bow," she said, drawing a parallel with the BJP's moves against Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and the NCP.
The Election Commission on Friday allotted new identities to both factions of the split party. Banerjee's group will now be known as the “Mamata All India Trinamool Congress” and will contest under the
“Football Player” symbol, while the rival faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee has been named the “Democratic Trinamool Congress” and allotted the “Envelope” symbol.
The Trinamool's fracture accelerated after the party's sharp decline in the May state assembly elections, where it won just 80 of 294 seats, down from 215.
A majority of MLAs subsequently defected under Ritabrata Banerjee, with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs following.
