In a significant development, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has stripped the Communist Party of India (CPI), Trinamool Congress (TMC), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of their ‘national party’ status. They will be treated henceforth as regional parties.
On the other hand, the EC named AAP as a national party based on its electoral performance in four states — Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power in Delhi and Punjab.
The BJP, Congress, CP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People’s Party (NPP) and the AAP are now national parties. The Election Commission, meanwhile, derecognised NCP, CPI and TMC as national parties.
2. Reason For Derecognition
The ECI’s latest order comes in response to the show-cause notices issued to TMC, CPI, and NCP in July 2019, which had specifically sought an explanation on why their national party status should not be revoked, after their performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, according to Indian Express.
In their response, these parties requested the poll panel to allow them to retain the national status till 2024. The EC subsequently deferred its decision to review the national status of the parties.
In its order, the Commission also revoked the state party status granted to RLD in Uttar Pradesh, BRS in Andhra Pradesh, PDA in Manipur, PMK in Puducherry, RSP in West Bengal and MPC in Mizoram.
The Commission said that NCP and Trinamool Congress will be recognised as state parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya respectively based on their performance in the recently concluded assembly elections.
TIPRA Motha recognised as a ‘state party’ in Tripura while KCR’s BRS, earlier known as TRS, lost its ‘state party’ status in Andhra but retained it in Telangana.
The national and state party statuses are reviewed every 10 years, after the EC amended the rules in 2016, before which the revision was to happen every five years.
