'Football Will Deflate': Himanta Sarma Jabs Mamata Banerjee Over Party Symbol

The Mamata Banerjee-led faction of Trinamool has been given the name "Mamata All India Trinamool Congress" and the "football player" symbol ahead of the October 6 bypolls in Bengal, according to NDTV.

The Congress party has reacted strongly to the arrest of its Nandigram bypoll candidate, Milan Pradhan, in a 19-year-old case. The party has called the move "political revenge" and a "murder of democracy". Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal have both spoken out against the arrest, accusing the BJP of trying to "hijack" democracy and undermine the opposition.

The Indian Express reported that Rahul Gandhi said the BJP wants to cling to power through various means, including vote theft and stealing parties. K C Venugopal described the situation in West Bengal as having democracy "on ventilator".

Brief written by urgent.news from NDTV, The Indian Express - India, The Indian Express — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.