The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday delisted 86 non-existent Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) and declared additional 253 as ‘Inactive RUPPs’. This action against 339 non-compliant RUPPs takes the tally to 537 defaulting RUPPs since May 25, 2022. The decision against 253 non-compliant RUPPs has been taken based on reports received from Chief Electoral Officers of seven states namely Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh
In a statement, the EC said "immediate corrective measures" were required to be taken in larger public interest as well as for the "purity" of electoral democracy and hence it has also declared an additional 253 registered unrecognised political parties (RUPPs) as "inactive" as they have not responded to the letter/notice delivered to them and have not contested a single election either to the General Assembly of a State or the Parliament Election 2014 and 2019.
These RUPPs have failed to comply with statutory requirements for more than 16 compliance steps since 2015 and are continuing to default. The decision was taken by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, it said.
The EC said that of the above 253 parties, 66 RUPPs actually applied for a common symbol as per para 10B of the Symbol’s Order 1968 and did not contest the respective elections. “It is pertinent to note that privilege of a common symbol is given to RUPP based upon an undertaking for putting up at least 5 percent of total candidates with regard to said legislative assembly election of a State. Possibility of such parties occupying the available pre-election political space by taking benefits of admissible entitlements without contesting elections cannot be ruled out. This also tends to crowd out the political parties actually contesting elections and also creating confusing situation for the voters,” it said.
They were categorised as inactive, as they have "not responded to the letter/notice delivered to them and have not contested a single election either to the general assembly of a state or the Parliament election 2014 and 2019," the EC said.
The Income-Tax department had last week conducted raids against certain RUPPs in some states as part of a tax evasion probe against them. The department is understood to have taken a decision on the basis of the EC action undertaken against the RUPPs in May-June following which it wrote to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to take "requisite action under extant legal framework."