The Congress that Rahul controls: Born of a split, symbol freeze

New Delhi: While Rahul Gandhi strongly disapproved of the Election Commission (ECI) freezing the TMC symbol, calling it a poll watchdog-government joint act in 'party chori', ironically, the Congress party -- the leadership of which Gandhi and his family have inherited -- and the party's 'hand' symbol, were also born out of an acrimonious party split 48 years ago, orchestrated by Indira Gandhi, and a subsequent freezing of another party symbol. Following the 1978 Congress split and the resulting patent tussle before the then ECI, the then Congress 'cow and calf' symbol was frozen by the poll body which allotted the 'hand' symbol to the Indira-formed breakaway party, recognising it as 'Congress-I'.

While Rahul lashed out at the Modi government and the ECI for earlier splits of Shiv Sena and NCP, India's pioneering and most tumultuous splits happened in the Congress itself way back in 1969 and 1978 with Indira Gandhi -- first as the reigning prime minister and later as the defeated PM -- engineering the splits in both instances and landing in the ECI for the custody of the party and symbols.

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After Indira Gandhi led the Congress to its post-Emergency electoral rout, the party plunged into internal divisions, and the defeat of most candidates backed by Indira Gandhi in a CWC election signalled her downfall as a party outcast. This triggered her to revolt, split the Congress and form her own parallel party in 1978 with the active support of Sanjay Gandhi and the then Youth Congress stormtroopers.

While the ECI had then settled rival claims by freezing the 'cow and calf symbol' and handed over the 'hand' symbol to the India Gandhi's Congress (I), a few years on, the Congress(I) was accorded the status of the official Congress by the ECI, incidentally, after Indira Gandhi returned as PM after leading her party to power in 1980. However, she chose to retain the 'hand symbol', which was considered auspicious and easy to connect with the masses.

Read more: Rahul Gandhi slams EC over TMC name, symbol ban, says ‘vote chori, govt chori, now party chori’

Earlier, the original Congress Party with 'a pair of bullocks carrying a yoke' as symbol, suffered a split in 1969 with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi taking on the Syndicate. This also led to a dispute reaching the ECI court and later the poll body allotted "a cow with calf" to India Gandhi-led new "Congress- R" (Requisition) while allowing the "Indian Nation Congress-O" (Organisation) to retain the 'pair of bullocks' symbol. While the Congress (R)'s 1971 poll victory cemented its position as the official party, Indira Gandhi preferred to carry on with 'cow and calf' symbol until the 1978 split.

The subsequent evolution of Indian politics and party system under various regimes and ECs also witnessed splits of many political parties, which, especially the splinter groups of the Janata Parivar and Janata Dal Parivar, embroiled in bitter party/symbol disputes before the ECI, resulting in freezing of some symbols and allocation of new party names and symbols to some others. The TMC factions are only the latest of this long saga.