Requesting before Election Commission of India, three national parties submitted their response on Monday as to why their status of “national party” should not be revoked. The three parties, CPI, TMC, and the NCP urged for getting a fresh chance to improve their poll performance.
Previously, national Parties such as NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), TMC (Trinamool Congress), and CPI (Communist Party of India) had received notices from the election watchdog on the national party-status owing to their bad performance in Lok Sabha elections of 2019. Along with them, six state parties also received the show cause notices on their ‘state party status’. The six partis were Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC).
The national parties on Monday argued that they should be given a second chance since they are one of the instrumental parties in the country. Each party argued with different reasons. All concerned parties had appeared before the ECI for a personal hearing on Monday. TMC said that it should be allowed to continue with national-party status at least till 2024 since the recognition was just given to the party in 2014. While CPI argued its case by telling that it is in power in many states and has played an important role in strengthening the Constitution.
According to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, a party will get the status of the national party if it fulfills any of the following criteria:
- It secures a 6% vote share in the last Assembly polls in each of any four states, as well as four seats in the last Lok Sabha polls, or
- It gets 2% of all Lok Sabha seats in the last such election, with MPs elected from at least three states, or
- It is recognized as a state party in at least four states.
In 2016, ECI amended its rules and called for a review of the status of political parties after 10 years instead of five.
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