EC withdraws national party status of Trinamool Congress, CPI, NCP; AAP gets tag

The Election Commission (EC) has withdrawn the national party status of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar's NCP, and CPI. Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party has been granted the tag following its win in Gujarat, where it bagged five seats.      

The commission has also withdrawn the state party status of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh, Revolutionary Socialist Party in West Bengal, while the Voice of the People Party has been recognised as a state party in Meghalaya. 

Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) has been recognised as a state party in Nagaland. In the assembly election held earlier this year, Chirag's party got 98,971 votes with 8.65 per cent vote share and won 2 seats.      

Pradyot Deb Barma's Tipra Motha Party, too, has been recognised as a state party in Tripura. In the recent assembly polls, Tipra Motha emerged as the second largest party with nearly 20 per cent votes and 13 of 42 seats it contested. 

Besides this, the status of state parties PDA (Manipur), PMK (Puducherry), RLD (Uttar Pradesh), BRS      (Andhra Pradesh), RSP (West Bengal), and MPC (Mizoram) has also been withdrawn. 

The EC grants national party status to political parties based on certain criteria. The party must secure at least 6 per cent of the valid votes polled in any four or more states at a general election to the Lok Sabha or to the State Legislative Assembly. The party must win at least 4 seats in the Lok Sabha from any state or states. The party must win at least 2 per cent of the seats in the Lok Sabha (i.e. a minimum of 11 seats) from at least three different states. The party should be recognized as a state party in at least four states.

While NCP was recognised as a national party in 2000, the TMC was granted the status in 2016. NCP was also recognised as a state party in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and Nagaland. However, the EC today said that Sharad Pawar's party did not fulfill the criteria of recognition in Arunachal Prades, Goa, Manipur, and Meghalaya during the general elections held in 2014 and 2019.  

The commission said that considering the poll performance of NCP, it has withdrawn the state party status of NCP in Goa, Manipur, and Meghalaya. "Consequently, the National Party recognition of the NC also stands withdrawn," the commission said, adding that it will continue to be treated as a state party in Maharashtra and Nagaland. 

"Trinamool Congress has overcome many obstacles, we will overcome this too. We will continue to do what we have to do, it will not make any difference," TMC MP Saugata Roy said while reacting to the move by the EC.