News highlights:
Recently, The Election Commission (EC) downgraded the recognition status of nine national/state political parties and upgraded the status of 16 political parties.
Key Takeaway:
- Earlier, there were seven parties recognised as national parties by the Election Commission.
- The NCP, TMC and CPI lost their national party status, while Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was elevated to national party status, leaving the country with five national parties.
Status of National Party:
- About National Party:
- As the name suggests, it has a nationwide presence as opposed to a regional party that is restricted to only a particular state or region.
- A certain stature is sometimes associated with being a national party, but this does not necessarily translate into having a lot of national political influence.
- Conditions for Declaring National Party:
- As per the ECI’s Political Parties and Election Symbols, 2019 handbook, a political party would be considered a national party if:
- It is ‘recognised’ in four or more states; or
- If its candidates have secured at least 6% of total valid votes in at least 4 states (in latest Lok Sabha or Assembly elections) and the party has at least 4 MPs in the last LS polls; or
- If it has won at least 2% of the total seats in the LS from at least 3 states.
State Party requirements:
- Conditions:
- At General Elections or Legislative Assembly elections, the party has won 3% of seats in the legislative assembly of the State (subject to a minimum of 3 seats).
- At a Lok Sabha General Elections, the party won 1 Lok Sabha seat for every 25 Lok Sabha seats allotted for the State.
- At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party has polled a minimum of 6% of votes in a State and in addition, it has won 1 Lok Sabha or 2 Legislative Assembly seats.
- At a General Election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party has polled 8% of votes in a State.
Benefits of such recognition:
- The biggest advantage of being recognised is getting the reserved symbol. A party recognised as a state party gets a reserved symbol within the state.
- For National Parties, the reserved symbol can be used nationwide by its contesting candidates. This is one of the biggest advantages since symbol plays a very important role in elections.
- There are also other advantages to the recognised parties like subsidised land for party offices, free air time on Doordarshan & All India Radio, supply of electoral roll copies free of cost during elections etc.
Losing recognition:
- Once recognised as a national or a state party, a political party retains that status irrespective of its performance in the next elections.
- It loses the given status only if it fails to fulfil any of the conditions for two successive Assembly and two successive Lok Sabha elections.
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Content Source: The Hindu