HYDERABAD: As many as 12 political parties from the two Telugu states have been delisted by the Election Commission of India between Febuary and Dec this year. All over the country, 255 political parties have been delisted, according to an official communication the commission sent to the Central Board of Direct Taxes on Dec 21.
The 12 parties include Anna Telugu Desam, the party that was started by NT Rama Rao’s elder son Nandamuri Harikrishna and NTR Telugu Desam floated by NTR’s wife Lakshmi Parvati.
The other parties are: All India Sadguna Party, Andhra Nadu Party, Bahujana Republic Party, Bharatiya Seva Dal, Jai Telangana Party, Mudiraj Rashtriya Samithi, National Citizens Party, Satyayug Party, Telangana Congress Party and Telangana Praja Party. The delisted parties did not field candidates in any of the elections to the Lok Sabha or State Legislative Assemblies between 2005 and 2015.
According to the letter to the chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, the dilisted political parties are those that needed to be reviewed if their registered office address was as per the commission’s records. After the process, it was identified that some parties are no longer in existence and were hence deleted, under Section 29A, of the Election Symbols Order, 1968. The commission suspected that many of these dormant parties could have been used for money laundering, and thus need scrutiny.