The bitter battle over Trinamool Congress's legal identity and poll symbol escalated into an administrative war on Thursday, as the Mamata Banerjee-led principal faction formally petitioned state and constitutional authorities, accusing the ruling establishment of orchestrating a police-backed conspiracy to manufacture support for the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee.
The controversy centres on rival claimants locked in a legal struggle for control of the party name and the twin-flower symbol. Following a Supreme Court order issued on September 28 — directing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide the matter within three months pursuant to a writ petition filed by the Mamata-led faction — both camps have been mandated to submit supporting affidavits by October 26.
In sharp representations dispatched to Bengal chief secretary Manoj Agarwal, DGP Siddh Nath Gupta and others, besides Nirvachan Sadan, Mamata loyalists alleged that the state apparatus was actively subverting law enforcement machinery to fabricate affidavits for the breakaway faction.
“Highly alarming reports that police stations in Bengal are being used to organise political affidavits for traitor MLAs: police are apparently finding people, arranging court papers and notaries, and collecting the documents. This is beyond shocking. When did the police & thanas start organising political affidavits? Who authorised this exercise, and are people signing freely or being coerced? An IMMEDIATE and transparent explanation is needed,” wrote Mamata loyalist Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose on X.
According to the complaint of the Mamata-led bloc, district magistrates issued unwritten directives to stamp vendors across the state, diverting around 25,000 low-denomination stamp papers of ₹10 and ₹20 per sub-registry office directly to local police station inspectors and OCs. Mamata loyalists claimed this hoarding created an artificial shortage of stamp papers, preventing genuine party workers from procuring the document for their legal filings.
They alleged that cops across the state’s 607 police stations have been assigned quotas to coerce non-party members into signing upwards of 1,100 dummy affidavits each, culminating in an operation targeting over six lakh fabricated submissions.
The complaints allege that notaries have been stationed inside police facilities to fast-track the notarisation of these documents on behalf of the rebel camp.
Warning law enforcement personnel against executing partisan political directives, the Mamata-led bloc demanded immediate intervention from constitutional bodies to halt the alleged state-sponsored fabrication or face severe legal consequences.
Ritabrata called the claims political posturing. Defending the legitimacy of the proceedings and rejecting allegations of state coercion or financial irregularity, Ritabrata maintained his camp’s mobilisation reflected genuine organisational grounding. “They talk about corruption, but the entire history of Mamata Banerjee’s regime has been organised loot and legalised plunder,” Ritabrata claimed, adding the Kalighat outcry stemmed from their inability to match paperwork in a fair contest.
“When they realise they can't furnish the required affidavits before the Election Commission, they resort to creating a ruckus and crying foul,” he said.