The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by the Indian Secular Front (ISF) challenging the Election Commission’s decision to allot the “envelope” election symbol to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Democratic Trinamool Congress (DTMC) for the Nandigram Assembly by-election. With the court rejecting the challenge, the DTMC will contest the October 6 bypoll using the envelope symbol, while the ISF has been allotted the “almirah” symbol. Justice Krishna Rao pronounced the order in the case.

The ISF had approached the High Court after the Election Commission reassigned the envelope symbol, which the party had used during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election. The party argued that assigning the same symbol to another contestant in a constituency where the ISF was also contesting could create confusion among voters. The ISF had sought directions to freeze the symbol rather than allow it to be used by the newly formed Democratic Trinamool Congress.

The Election Commission, however, maintained that the ISF is a registered but unrecognised political party and therefore does not have a permanent claim over an election symbol. Its counsel told the court that the envelope was a free symbol and had previously been allotted to the ISF only for specific elections. The Commission said that after the earlier elections, the symbol became available for allotment again. For the Nandigram bypoll, the poll panel allotted the envelope to the DTMC and the almirah to the ISF. The symbol dispute had earlier led the High Court to question the Election Commission's decision.

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During hearings last week, Justice Krishna Rao pointed out that the poll panel had 183 free symbols available and questioned why it had chosen a symbol that had recently been used by another party contesting the same by-election. The court also questioned whether the Election Commission had adequately considered the ISF’s request before making the allotment. However, after hearing the parties, the court reserved its order on September 28 before delivering its decision on Wednesday. The Nandigram by-election is scheduled for October 6, with campaigning set to end on October 4 and counting scheduled for October 9.

The bypoll became necessary after Suvendu Adhikari, who won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the 2026 Assembly election, retained Bhabanipur and vacated the Nandigram seat. The constituency is among the two West Bengal Assembly seats going to bypolls on October 6. The High Court's latest order settles the immediate dispute over the envelope symbol for the Nandigram contest. The DTMC will now continue its campaign with the envelope symbol, while the ISF will contest using the almirah symbol. The ruling concerns the Election Commission's symbol allotment for the bypoll and does not determine the outcome of the election, which will be decided by voters on October 6.

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