EC delists 474 political parties

Continuing with its drive of delisting registered unrecognised political parties (RUPPs), which have failed to fulfil the essential condition of contesting even a single election continuously for six years since 2019, the Election Commission (EC) has delisted 474 such political entities as on September 18.

Of these, 121 RUPPs were delisted in Uttar Pradesh followed by Maharashtra (44), Tamil Nadu (42) and Delhi (40). In Punjab and Haryana, 21 and 17 parties have been delisted, respectively. Till now the EC has delisted 808 such entities in two rounds. In the first phase, the EC had delisted 334 RUPPs on August 9.

For the third round, the EC has identified 359 RUPPs. In order to ensure that no party is unduly delisted, the CEOs of the respective states or Union Territories have been directed to issue show-cause notices to these RUPPs. The EC takes the final decision on the delisting of any RUPP based on the reports of the CEOs.

These 359 parties have not submitted their annual audited accounts in the last three financial years (i.e. 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24) within the stipulated time period and have contested elections but not filed election expenditure reports.