200 political parties register with EC in 2019; tax exemptions, donations behind swell

​Nearly 30 new parties have applied for registration with the Election Commission in last two months.
Representational Image
Representational Image

NEW DELHI: A new political party comes into existence every alternate day in India. Last year saw the registration of over 200 political parties from various parts of the country.  

New parties seeking registration kept on rising even after the Lok Sabha polls and nearly 180 new parties have joined the long list of registered political parties in the country.

Nearly 30 new parties have applied for registration with the Election Commission in last two months.

Officials and experts claimed it is the privilege granted to them and lack of monitoring on their activities that political parties keep on sprouting. As per EC records, there were 1,334 registered parties, of which six were recognised national parties and 53 recognised state parties in 2012. The number kept on rising and by 2019, the total number of registered parties crossed the mark of 2,300.

Professor Jagdeep S Chhokar, founder of Association of Democratic Reform said political parties enjoy the privilege of tax exemption and this is the reason behind a large number of parties. “Whatever donation they get, income of political parties is exempted from income tax and this is the reason,” he said.

Professor Chhokar said the EC does not have the power to deregister a political party. “In fact, the Commission has written about this to the Law Ministry in the past, but nothing happened…India is probably only country where, if a political party gets registered, it will remain there,” he said.

EC officials claimed only nearly 25 per cent of these parties contest in the polls and their vote share is very marginal. During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 464 parties, including the six national and 39 state-level ones, contested. As many as 6,434 candidates from unrecognised parties contested, and only 98 managed to win. The 2019 Lok Sabha poll saw a similar trend.

Advocate Umesh Sharma said most unrecognised parties have ulterior motives. “Some indulge in corrupt activities, because even if they don’t contest polls, they can collect donations and enjoy tax exemption.” 

Sharma said sometimes, bigger parties use the infrastructure allotted to these smaller parties during campaigning and polling due to the limit on the use of vehicles and other logistics during poll time. EC officials said there have been complaints of parties being involved in wrong activities.

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