The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Monday petitioned Nirvachan Sadan to reject the Ritabrata Banerjee-helmed rebel faction’s claim on the party’s name and election symbol, calling the dissidents' June 22 organisational overhaul "fundamentally flawed, illegal and not substantiated by the party constitution".

The 14-page submission, signed by Mamata as chairperson of the party, was delivered to the Election Commission by a delegation comprising Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra, and Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose.

The move came ahead of the Monday evening deadline set by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, formalising the counter-offensive after Trinamool imploded following the May 4 publication of Assembly election results. The split has locked the two camps in a high-stakes battle over the twin-flower symbol, party assets, and a purported "white money" war chest of at least ₹1,100 crore.

The core of the dispute rests on who controls the organisational framework.

“It is incorrect that the tenure (of the Mamata-led national working committee) ended on February 11, 2025. Such date is imaginary,” the letter stated. “Under Clause XIX(a) (of the party’s constitution), the tenure... is for a period of five years," wrote Mamata.

The Ritabrata bloc had claimed the three-year term since the February 2022 national working committee meeting ended in February last year, subsequently replacing Mamata with Arup Roy as chairperson, and abolishing the post of national general secretary, occupied by her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.

To validate the five-year term, the letter detailed a timeline of constitutional amendments dating back to the party's formation. Kalyan, anchoring the legal defence at the EC on Monday, pointed out that when the symbol had first been allotted in December 1997 to the West Bengal Trinamool Congress, the constitution mandated an election every three years.

Following the 2000 transition to the All India Trinamool Congress, the rulebook was amended to four years, and subsequently pushed to five years during a January 9, 2006 amendment, which followed a ratification meeting in Contai on January 23, 2005.

Based on this five-year cycle, the 2022 panel remains valid until 2027.

The 14-page rebuttal also attacked the procedural validity of the rebel session that appointed former Mamata loyalists Aroop Biswas, Firhad Hakim, and Rathin Ghosh as vice-presidents under Roy, alongside general secretaries Ritabrata, Javed Ahmed Khan, Sandipan Saha, and Sabina Yeasmin.

“The elections of all the office-bearers including the chairman are all illegal,” the letter stated.

The leadership argued that a plenary session can only occur every three years, and a special session requires an explicit directive from the recognised committee. “No attempt was made by the complainant for holding elections to the AITC committee with sufficient notice to the electorate. Not a single MP of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha was notified of such a meeting. The present chairperson and office-bearers were also not informed of such a meeting,” the letter added.

The internal numbers highlight the depth of the split.

Beyond the 65 MLAs in the Assembly, 20 of Trinamool's 28 Lok Sabha members have bypassed anti-defection laws by merging with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) to align with the BJP-led NDA, while three of the party's 13 Rajya Sabha members have resigned, triggering by-election schedules.

Despite the legislative flight, the letter closed by pointing out an inescapable bureaucratic reality: every rebel MLA contested the recent 2026 election using nomination papers signed directly by Mamata and countersigned by Abhishek.

“Having taken advantage (of the signatures), they cannot claim that Mamata Banerjee is not the chairperson,” the submission concluded. “Ritabrata Banerjee and other alleged office-bearers have also beneficiaries of the signatures of the chairperson.”

While the rebel camp's lawyer submitted further documents through Opposition chief whip Akhruzzaman without revealing their contents, Kalighat remains suspicious of the regulatory optics.

"We are in a legally strong place," Kalyan said.

"But they have the support of the BJP and Suvendu Adhikari. So their illegality can also be legal. But we will show it in the court and the court of the people," he added.