India, Sept. 19 -- On 2 January 1998, the Trinamool Congress received recognition from the Election Commission, along with its own election symbol. Even today, photographs from that period remain in the archives, showing late Ajit Panja, Manishankar Aiyar, late Mukul Roy, Ratan Mukherjee and Mamata Banerjee. That was the period when the Trinamool Congress was taking shape as Mamata Banerjee's own political organisation.

Today, however, the same Election Commission has frozen both the TMC's party name and its traditional election symbol. The reason is that the party has split into two groups, with both claiming to be the real Trinamool Congress. The Election Commission has therefore frozen the name and symbol for the time being.

I still ...