Mamata Banerjee calls new party name/symbol decision a 'black day' for democracy

Kolkata: After being allotted a new name and symbol for her faction, former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said "today is a black day in the democratic history of the country". She wanted to know how her party symbol, which remained with her for the last 29 years, could be taken away from her.

"What is happening in the country is deeply unfortunate. It is unconstitutional, illegal, undemocratic and completely biased," she said.

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"Can you imagine that some people from the Election Commission office came here at around 12:45 at night? At that time, nobody was present here," she said. Calling it a "political vendetta", Banerjee vowed not to bow down before anyone but would fight it out. The former CM referred to the new symbol and name of her party given by the ECI as "temporary".

Speaking about the loss of the symbol, she said earlier, Uddhav Thackarey's party also received new symbols and the party was broken. Then, NCP was broken and then it was Trinamool, which was threatened and asked to support BJP, Banerjee said, adding that she "respects the Constitutional Chair". She claimed that votes were looted in Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Haryana during their respective polls.

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"They had already made their intention clear when they said, "Naam bhi nahi rakhne dunga, nishaan bhi nahi rakhne dunga" (I will not allow you to keep either the name or the symbol)," she said.

Banerjee said she considered the present decision to be "interim and unjust" and said "we will challenge it." "We have temporarily submitted alternative names and symbol preferences only because the by-election process is already underway. This does not mean that we accept what has happened. We will return to our original symbol," she said.