Why in news?
National People’s Party has been recognized as a National party by the Election Commission of India (ECI). It is the 8th party to get the recognition and the 1st from North-East India.
What is the national party status?
- The Election Commission lists political parties as “national party”, “state party” or “registered (unrecognised) party”.
- The conditions for being listed as a national or a state party are specified under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
- For recognition as a national party, the conditions specified under Paragraph 6B of the 1968 Order are:
- 6% vote share in the last Assembly polls in each of any 4 states, as well as 4 seats in the last Lok Sabha polls; or
- 2% of all Lok Sabha seats in the last such election, with MPs elected from at least 3 states; or
- Recognition as a state party in at least 4 states.
- 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 fulfill any of the conditions for two successive Assembly and two successive Lok Sabha elections.
- An important advantage of being recognized is getting the reserved symbol, which plays a vital role in elections. For National Parties, the reserved symbol can be used across the country by its contesting candidates.
- The other advantages to the recognized parties are subsidized land for party offices, free air time on Doordarshan & All India Radio, supply of electoral roll copies free of cost during elections etc.
About the National People’s Party
- The party was already a recognized state party in the States of Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. After its recognition as a State party in Arunachal Pradesh, it has become a recognized State party in 4 States. Thus the Party has fulfilled the eligibility condition for being recognized as a National Party.
- As per the request of the Party, the symbol ‘Book’ has been allotted as the reserved symbol for the ‘National People’s Party’.
- The seven other recognized national parties in India are the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
