New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS) In a major move to “clean up” the electoral system, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified 476 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) for delisting due to their failure to contest even a single election in six years, an official said on Monday.

Out of the 476 parties under the ECI scanner, a maximum of 121 are in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra with 44, Tamil Nadu with 42 and Delhi with 41, the ECI said.

“As part of a comprehensive and continuous strategy to clean up the electoral system, ECI has been conducting a nationwide exercise to identify and delist RUPPs which have failed to fulfil the essential condition of contesting even a single election for 6 years continuously, since 2019,” said the ECI in a statement.

Guidelines for registration of political parties mention that if the party does not contest elections continuously for 6 years, the party shall be taken off the list of registered parties, it said.

Under provisions of the Act, any association once registered as a political party, gets certain privileges and advantages such as symbol, tax exemptions among others, it said.

On August 9, as many as 345 RUPPs, which have failed to fulfil the essential criteria of contesting even a single election for the last six years since 2019 and whose offices could not be physically located at the address mentioned in their registered documents were delisted by the ECI.

“As part of second round of the exercise, another 476 RUPPs have been identified, which are from different States and UTs across the country,” the ECI said.

To ensure that no party is unduly delisted, the CEOs of the respective States/UTs have been directed to issue show-cause notices to these RUPPs following which, the parties will be given an opportunity through a hearing, it said.

On August 9, the ECI said, “After considering all facts and recommendations of CEOs, the Commission has delisted 334 RUPPs. Now, out of the total of 2,854 RUPPs, 2,520 are remaining.”

“These RUPPs will now not be eligible to avail any benefit under the provisions of Section 29B and Section 29C of the RP Act, 1951 and the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Any party aggrieved by this order can appeal to the Commission within 30 days,” it further added.

The delisting of RUPPs is part of the ECI’s comprehensive and continuous strategy to purge the system of parties which have become redundant and merely exist on paper.

Since 2022, the poll panel has delisted 284 defaulting and non-compliant RUPPs and declared 253 RUPPs inactive as part of its efforts to clean up the political space, occupied by non-functional parties.

–IANS

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