EC accords national party status to AAP; Trinamool, Nationalist Congress Party, CPI lose tag

New Delhi, April 10

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday accorded national party status to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and withdrew the tag from the TMC, the NCP and the CPI.

In an order the ECI said, “The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) recognised as a National Party as it fulfilled the condition of Para 6B(iii) i.e. recognition as a state party in four states, based on electoral performance in states including Delhi, Goa, Punjab and, most recently in Gujarat.”

BJP, Congress, CPI(M), Bahujan Samaj Party, National People’s Party and AAP are now national parties

Further, the ECI announced that it was withdrawing the status of three recognised national parties — the AITC (Trinamool), the CPI and the NCP — after “following due process and providing sufficient opportunity of two Parliamentary elections and 21 State Assembly Elections”.

In the order the ECI said, “The national party status of the All India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) were withdrawn.”

The BJP, Congress, CPI(M), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People’s Party (NPP) and the AAP are now national parties.

The state party status granted to RLD in Uttar Pradesh, BRS in Andhra Pradesh, PDA in Manipur, PMK in Puducherry, RSP in West Bengal and MPC in Mizoram have also been revoked and all of them would remain as Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPP), it said.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in Nagaland, Voice of the People Party in Meghalaya and the Tipra Motha in Tripura granted “recognised state political party” status, the ECI announced.