Election Commission Delists 86 Non-Existent Registered Political Parties, Declares 253 Inactive

In continuation of action plan initiated on 25 May for enforcing due compliances by Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPP), Election Commission of India has delisted 86 non-existent RUPPs and declared 253 as ‘Inactive RUPPs’.

As per statutory requirements under section 29A of the RP Act, every political party has to communicate any change in its name, head office, office bearers, address, PAN to the Commission without delay, the Election Commission has stated in a statement.

Non-existent RUPPs: "86 RUPPs have been found to be non-existent either after a physical verification carried out by the respective Chief Electoral Officers of concerned States/UTs or based on report of undelivered letters/notices from Postal Authority sent to the registered address of concerned RUPP," stated ECI.

ECI had delisted 87 RUPPs and 111 RUPPs on 25 May and 20 June, thus totaling the number of delisted RUPPs to 284.

Non-compliant RUPPs: According to the ECI, the decision against 253 non-compliant RUPPs has been taken based on reports received from Chief Electoral Officers of seven states - Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

"These 253 RUPPs have been declared inactive, as they have not responded to the letter/notice delivered to them and have not contested a single election either to the General Assembly of a State or the Parliament Election 2014 and 2019.

These RUPPs have failed to comply with statutory requirements for more than 16 compliance steps since 2015 and are continuing to default," EC said.

The action against 339 non-compliant RUPPs takes the tally to 537 defaulting RUPPs.

According to the guidelines for registration of political parties issued by the Commission for condition of registration, which declares that a party must contest an election conducted by the EC within five years of its registration and thereafter should continue to contest.

If the Party does not contest elections continuously for six years, the Party shall be taken off the list of registered parties.

Common Symbol: It is also noted that of 253 parties, 66 RUPPs actually applied for a common symbol as per para 10B of the Symbol’s Order 1968 and did not contest the respective elections.

It is pertinent to note that privilege of a common symbol is given to RUPP based upon an undertaking for putting up at least 5 per cent of total candidates with regard to said legislative assembly election of a State.

Possibility of such parties occupying the available pre-election political space by taking benefits of admissible entitlements without contesting elections cannot be ruled out. 

This also tends to crowd out the political parties actually contesting elections and also creating confusing situations for the voters.

The Commission notes that the primary purpose of registration of political parties is contained in Section 29A which lists out privileges and advantages which accrue to an association once it gets registered as a political party and all such advantages and privileges are directly relatable to the said participation in the electoral processes.

In the absence of required compliances, the electorate and the Election Commission get blindsided.

Further all these stated regulatory requirements have direct bearing on the Commission's constitutional mandate of conducting free, fair and transparent elections.

The ECI has undertaken corrective measures that are warranted in larger public interest as well as for the purity of electoral democracy.

Also Read: Explained: Why Nitish Kumar Is So Desperate To Forge Opposition Unity