National People’s Party

• 22 Jun 2020

Why in News

Political troubleshooting is going on in Manipur after the four MLAs of National People's Party (NPP) along with few others had withdrawn support from the ruling government recently.

Key Points

• National People’s Party:
  
  • The NPP got the status of national party in 2019, after it was recognised as a state party in four states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
  • It is the eighth party to get the recognition — after INC, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI, CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress. It is also the first party from Northeast India to be recognised as a national party.
• Types of Parties:
  
  • The Election Commission of India lists political parties as “national party”, “state party” or “registered (unrecognised) party”.
  • The conditions for being listed as a national or a state party are specified under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
• National Party:
  
  • For recognition as a national party, a party has to satisfy these conditions:
    
    • 6% valid votes polled in any four or more states at a general election to the Lok Sabha or to the State legislative assembly; and, in addition, it wins four seats in the Lok Sabha from any state or states.
    • 2% of all Lok Sabha seats in the last such election, with MPs elected from at least three states.
    • Recognition as a state party in at least four states.
• State Party:
  
  • For recognition as a state party, any one of five conditions needs to be satisfied:
    
    • Two seats plus a 6% vote share in the last Assembly election in that state.
    • One seat plus a 6% vote share in the last Lok Sabha election from that state.
    • 3% of the total Assembly seats or 3 seats, whichever is more.
    • One of every 25 Lok Sabha seats (or an equivalent fraction) from a state.
    • An 8% state-wide vote share in either the last Lok Sabha or the last Assembly polls.
• Loss of Recognised Status:
  
  • Once recognised as a national or a state party, a political party loses its given status only if it fails to fulfil any of the conditions for two successive Assembly and two successive Lok Sabha elections.
    
    • That means a party retains that status irrespective of its performance in the next elections.

Sl.No.	Name of the Party (Abbreviation)	Symbol Reserved
1.	Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)	Elephant (In all States/U.T.s except in Assam)
2.	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	Lotus
3.	Communist Party of India (CPI)	Ears of Corn and Sickle
4.	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	Hammer, Sickle and Star
5.	Indian National Congress (INC)	Hand
6.	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)	Clock
7.	All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	Flowers and Grass
8.	National People’s Party (NPP)	Book

Source: TH