Jarasandha principle and party demerger

Indian politics is not new to the idea of a corporate demerger - from Congress, to the multiple communist parties, to the more recent Shiv Sena mitosis. Now, it's Trinamool Congress' turn. For the immediate purpose of representation in two upcoming bypolls in West Bengal, a fight has broken out over who gets to keep the TMC's 'flowers and grass' logo.

EC's interim freezing of the name and symbol is a neat strategy taken from the Eknath Shinde v. Uddhav Thackeray 'Who's the real Sena?' handbook. 'Jarasandha capitalism' applied to politics: split the entity in two, then discover that both halves insist they are the original creature.

Read more: Two factions, two directions: TMC rebels face unprecedented political divide


For companies, the most valuable property is not the office, employees or management, but the brand. Political brands, too, contain accumulated legacy: leaders, slogans, loyalties, colours, symbols - all distilled into a handle for the voter to turn and pull at the time of reckoning. A voter may know little about Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols Order 1968, but can immediately recognise a flower, arrow or lotus. EC's machinery exists partly because, when rival groups claim to be 'the one', someone has to be King Solomon.

Hence the peculiar 'violence' of a party split. Nobody particularly wants to launch a startup. Both sides want the legacy company, complete with goodwill, trademarks and emotional heft. The Shiv Sena dispute demonstrated the problem vividly. The Trinamool quarrel now reprises its basic structure. Separation produces not merely two competing political organisations but a fundamental fight over authenticity. Jarasandha, inconveniently, could be torn into two, literally down the middle, by Karna. A political brand can too. The difficulty begins when both halves demand visiting cards.