Election Commission delists 86 parties

Subject : Polity

Context: The Election Commission of India has delisted 86 non-existent Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPP).

Concept :

The EC has been on a mission to clean up the list of registered unrecognized political parties, deleting 284 since May this year.
86 RUPPs have been found to be non-existent either after a physical verification carried out by the Chief Electoral Officers of concerned States/UTs or based on a report of undelivered letters/notices from Postal Authority sent to the registered address of concerned RUPP.
Election commission can delist a party under article 324 of constitution of India with respect to its superintendence power.
As per Section 29A of the Representation of People Act 1951, every political party has to communicate any change in its name, head office, office bearers, address, PAN to the Commission without delay.
Additionally, they would not be entitled to have benefits under the Symbols Order, 1968.

Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPP):

Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in the assembly or general elections to become a state party, or those which have never contested elections since being registered are considered unrecognised parties.
Such parties don’t enjoy all the benefits extended to the recognised parties.

Symbol Allocation:

Common symbols are provided to RUPP under Symbols Order, 1968.
Privilege of a common symbol is given to RUPP based upon an undertaking for putting up at least 5% of total candidates with regard to said legislative assembly election of a State.
Possibility of such parties occupying the available pre-election political space by taking benefits of admissible entitlements without contesting elections cannot be ruled out.
This also tends to crowd out the political parties actually contesting elections and also creating confusing situations for the voters.