Intra-party splits pose a recurring challenge to India's electoral machinery. Critically examine the ECI's approach to resolving such disputes, citing the Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress cases.

Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide rival claims to a party's name and reserved symbol when a recognised party splits [1]. Its approach has been pragmatic and election-driven, but it addresses symbols rather than the democratic deficit that causes splits.

Strengths of the ECI's approach

• Clear statutory mandate: Para 15 makes the ECI the sole adjudicator, avoiding prolonged litigation before polls [1].
• Judicially validated test: In Sadiq Ali v. ECI (1971) the Supreme Court upheld the majority test — support in the party's organisational and legislature wings — and traced the ECI's plenary powers to Article 324 [2].
• Interim freeze as a neutral device: before the Andheri East bypoll (October 2022), the ECI froze "Shiv Sena" and the bow-and-arrow, directing both factions to take new names and free symbols — preventing voter confusion without prejudging legitimacy [3].
• Timeliness: in the Trinamool dispute, hearings for the Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee factions were scheduled within days of the bypoll notification, fitting the nomination calendar [3].

Limitations

• Numbers over norms: the majority test rewards defecting legislators, sitting uneasily with the anti-defection spirit of the Tenth Schedule.
• Interim orders with final effects: a freeze denies both factions brand recall in an imminent contest, as in Andheri East and now Nandigram and Rejinagar [3].
• No inquiry into internal democracy: the ECI cannot test whether organisational elections were genuine; the Law Commission's 255th Report (2015) urged statutory regulation of inner-party democracy and ECI power to act against defaulting parties [4].
• Perception risk: adjudicating between government-aligned and opposition factions exposes the Commission to charges of partisanship.

The ECI has managed splits competently within a narrow 1968 framework, but symbol arbitration treats the symptom. Legislating inner-party democracy, reasoned time-bound orders, and codified freeze criteria would let the Commission uphold Article 324's mandate of free and fair elections in substance, not merely in form.