New Delhi/IBNS, Sept. 18 -- Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has backed former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after the Election Commission of India (ECI) froze the All India Trinamool Congress' name and its reserved election symbol amid an internal factional dispute.

In a post on X, Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ECI of following what he described as a repeated pattern of splitting opposition parties and then taking control of their election symbols.

Gandhi said the developments were part of what he described as a broader "democratic decline", referring to "vote theft", "government theft" and now "party theft".

He alleged that the ECI was not fulfilling its constitutional...