NEW DELHI: Continuing its efforts of cleaning up the electoral system in the country, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday said it has begun the process of delisting another 476 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs).
Notably, the current round of delisting exercise undertaken by the poll panel was two days after it delisted 334 RUPPs, which failed to fulfill the essential conditions of contesting any of the elections in the past six years. After delisting 334 RUPPs on August 9, the ECI has brought down the number of listed RUPPs from 2,854 to 2,520.
Political parties, whether national, state or RUPPS in India are registered with the poll panel in accordance with Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951.
The guidelines for registration of political parties mention that if the party does not contest elections continuously for six years, it shall be taken off the list of registered parties. In addition, as per Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951, parties at the time of their registration have to provide details like name, address, office bearers and any change has to be communicated to the ECI without delay.
In an official statement the ECI said, “As part of a comprehensive and continuous strategy to clean up the electoral system, ECI has been conducting a nationwide exercise to identify and delist RUPPs, which have failed to fulfill the essential condition of contesting even a single election for six years continuously, since 2019.”
It went on to add: "As part of the second round of the exercise, another 476 RUPPs have been identified, which are from different states and union territories across the country."
In order to ensure that no party is unduly delisted, the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of the respective states/UTs have been directed to issue show-cause notices to these RUPPs and these parties would be given an opportunity through a hearing by the concerned CEOs, the poll panel said, adding that based on the CEOs reports, the ECI will take the final decision regarding the delisting of any RUPP.