Didi to back Cong after TMC candidate pulls out

Kolkata: Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that her party will support the Congress in the Nandigram assembly bypoll, hours after her camp's candidate withdrew from the contest following a meeting with CM Suvendu Adhikari. Banerjee also hit out at the Election Commission over its decision to freeze the TMC's name and symbol, and said the move was "arbitrary".

She accused the BJP of trying to "destroy opposition parties" in the country.

Describing the development as a "black day for democracy", Banerjee questioned the EC's decision to freeze the party's traditional 'Jora Ghash Phul' (twin flowers and grass) symbol, which she said had been associated with the organisation for 28 years.

The EC on Friday allotted the Banerjee-led faction the name 'Mamata All India Trinamool Congress' and the 'Football Player' symbol for the October 6 bypolls, while the rival Arup Roy-led group was given the name 'Democratic Trinamool Congress' and the 'Envelope' symbol.

"The BJP has looted the elections not in Bengal but also in other states and is now trying to destroy opposition parties," she alleged.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the EC over its decision of directing rival Trinamool Congress factions to not use the party name and the "flowers and grass symbol" during the West Bengal bypolls, saying the poll body's constitutional responsibility is to protect the mandate but instead, it is aiding those very forces that overturn the people's verdict.

"First Shiv Sena, then NCP, and now Trinamool Congress. Every time, the same pattern - BJP and the Election Commission join forces to split a party. Then its election symbol is snatched away," Gandhi said.

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