• Thursday, March 28, 2024

HEADLINE STORY

Three parties, including India’s oldest communist party, lose national status ahead of 2024 general polls

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee (L) and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar at an opposition parties’ meeting in New Delhi, India, in June 2022. (ANI Photo)

By: Shubham Ghosh

The anti-Narendra Modi camp in Indian politics received a major blow on Monday (10) when the country’s Election Commission withdrew the national-party status of three parties, including Trinamool Congress (TMC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Communist Party of India (CPI).

The Aam Aadmi Party, which was founded a decade ago, was recognised as a national party.

The poll commission has issued notices to TMC, NCP and CPI after the 2019 parliamentary elections asking why their status should not be downgraded based on the outcome of the national election. The process could not move forward then due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last November, the commission revived the process and last month, it heard the response of the NCP and CPI, which is India’s oldest communist party.

The poll body, on the other hand, named the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP as a national party based on its electoral show in four states — Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat. The AAP is in power in two states at the moment — Delhi and Punjab.

After the latest move by the election commission, India now has six national parties — Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bahujan  Samaj Party, National People’s Party and the AAP.

The TMC, which was formed in 1998, came to power in the eastern state of West Bengal in 2011 under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, the state’s current chief minister. It got the national party tag in 2016 but its poor show in elections in Goa and some northeastern states led to it losing the status.

The NCP was formed by veteran Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 and it became a national party in 2000 following its electoral successes. But it lost its state party tag in Goa, Meghalaya and Manipur, as per the election commission.

The CPI, which was founded in 1925, was recognised as a national party in the late 1980s but the tag was withdrawn following its dismal show in elections in West Bengal and Odisha.

The party reacted a day after it lost its national party status, saying the commission should have given “due consideration” to the party’s contribution in the freedom struggle before revoking its status.

In a statement on Tuesday (11), the party said the CPI is one of the oldest political parties in the country and continues to have pan-India presence and mass following.

According to the commission officials, the said parties can regain their national and state party status based on their electoral performance in future.

To become a national party in India, a political outfit should be recognised as a state party in four states of the country and have at least two members in the respective legislative assemblies, according to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) order, 1968.

To become eligible to be recognised as a state party, a political outfit has to get two seats and a minimum six percent votes in a state.

A national tag brings a whole lot of advantages to a party, including a common party symbol across states, free airtime at time of elections on public broadcasters, space for a party unit in the national capital, among others. It gains weight during the elections, including the national one, and gets to rope in star campaigners for the purpose of electioneering.

Mint reported citing sources that TMC is exploring legal options to challenge the decision of the commission. The NCP, on the other hand, said it would react to the commission’s move after getting the order in writing.

(With PTI inputs)

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