Election Commission of India (ECI) has further intensified the verification procedure of registering new political parties under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The step is one among the Commission’s extensive campaign to clean up the election system to eliminate non-functional and bogus political outfits.
Some Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs), according to authorities, had been discovered to be either non-existent or dormant, creating the question of how they could be abusing their legal status. On August 9, the ECI removed 334 such parties, which had not competed in elections more than six years earlier and could not be traced at their addresses, and cut the number of RUPPs down to 2,520 out of 2,854. Another 476 RUPPs were flagged in the subsequent step, announced on August 11. Show-cause notices were to be issued by Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in the states and the Union Territories, and a field verification was to be done. Lack of response, or failure to comply with legal norms by parties, may be removed forever.
Besides this, new party registration has been subject to further scrutiny by the ECI. The Commission observed cases of manipulated or false affidavits of applicants concerning the founding members. To check such practices, it has required that at least 20 affidavits of founding members, randomly chosen, be verified. Such members can be registered in various districts or states, and the process of verification would be coordinated by District Election Officers (DEOs) under the control of state CEOs.
The crackdown already had consequences at the state level. One-third of the RUPPs in Telangana were delisted, with nine others being given notices. Five parties in Jharkhand were delisted. Equivalent activities are also being carried out throughout the country, with the ECI swelling the adherence to the Representation of the People Act, refining only true political entities that continue to be active in the electoral arena.
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