EC grants national party status to AAP; TMC, NCP, CPI lose tag — Check list of national parties in India

Aam Aadmi Party recognised as national party by the Election Commission (PTI/File image)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday withdrew the national party status of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI). In the order issued on Monday, it also announced the recognition of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a national party.

The EC informed that AAP was been named as a national party based on its electoral performance in four states — Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat. Commenting on this development AAP MP Raghav Chadha, said, "Today AAP has been given the status of a national party. I would like to congratulate all AAP volunteers who worked tirelessly to take the party to this milestone. I salute Arvind Kejriwal's leadership. We're India's fastest-growing political startup."

In the meanwhile Trinamool Congress party sources were quoted by ANI as saying that TMC was exploring legal options to challenge the decision of ECI of withdrawing its national party status.

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Among other noteworthy announcements, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) received recognition as a state party in Nagaland, Tipra Motha Party was recognised as a state party in Tripura,

Among the outfits that lost recognition as state party were — BRS derecognised as a state party in Andhra Pradesh, RLD's state party status was revoked in Uttar Pradesh, PDA's state party status revoked in Manipur, PMK's state party status revoked in Puducherry, RSP's state party status revoked in West Bengal and MPC's state party status revoked in Mizoram.

National Parties of India 2023

After Monday's announcement by the Election Commission, these six parties remain as national parties in the country:
1) BJP,
2) Congress,
3) CPI(M),
4) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP),
5) National People's Party (NPP), and
6) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)

The Commission further added that the NCP will be recognised as state party in Nagaland and and Trinamool Congress will be recognised as a state party in Meghalaya based on their performance in the recently-concluded assembly polls.

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) was granted "recognised state political party" status in Nagaland, while Voice of the People Party was granted "recognised state political party" status in Meghalaya and the Tipra Motha was granted "recognised state political party" status in Tripura.

What is a national party? On what basis does Election Commission recognise parties as national party

As per the handbook released by the Election Commission in the year 2019, to be considered as a national party a political party should be:
a) Recognised in four or more states; or
b) Its candidates must have polled at least 6% of total valid votes in at least 4 states (in latest General or Assembly polls) and the party must have at least four Members of Parliament in the last Lok Sabha polls; or
c) The party should have secured at least 2% of the total seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three states in the country.

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