NEW DELHI, Aug 19:
Communist Party of India and NCP today defended their status as ‘national parties’ before the Election Commission which had issued them a show cause notice to withdraw their position following their performance in the Lok Sabha elections.
The EC had called Sharad Pawar’s NCP, CPI and BSP for a personal hearing as their recognition is under review following their failure to fulfill the conditions for retaining recognition as national parties.
It is learnt that the BSP did not turn up for the hearing. The BSP had written to the poll body defending its national party status.
CPI’s D Raja appeared before the three Election Commissioners to defend the national status.
While admitting that CPI’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls was not according to expectation, he urged the poll panel not to take a decision on the issue till the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana due later this year and early next year are over.
He said if CPI is able to win four seats and above in any of the states, it will be in a position to retain its status.
Raja also told the Commission that CPI is the second oldest party in the country with functional offices virtually in all states.
He also found flaws in the ‘first past the post’ system and pitched or proportional representation.
While India follows ‘first past the post system’ in Lok Sabha and assembly polls, elections to the office of the President and to Rajya Sabha are held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
In a recent written representation to EC, BSP had asked the poll panel to wait till the outcome of the assembly elections in four states before taking a call on the issue.
BSP is hopeful of winning seats in Maharashtra and Haryana to retain its national party status.
NCP, represented by Praful Patel, also defended its national status. NCP is learnt to be of the view that with its presence in various states, it should be allowed to retain the national party status.
EC would shortly issue orders after hearing the parties.
Besides the three, Congress, CPI-M and BJP are the other three ‘national parties’.
A political party becomes eligible to be recognised as a national party if it has won 2 per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha (11 seats) from at least three different states in the latest general election.
Also, if the party has polled 6 per cent of the total valid votes in Lok Sabha and assembly polls in at least four states, in addition to winning four Lok Sabha seats.
While BSP bagged a 4.1 per cent vote share — the third highest after BJP and Congress — it failed to secure a single Lok Sabha seat.
NCP, with a vote share of 1.6 per cent, won six Lok Sabha seats. With a 0.8 per cent vote-share, CPI managed to win one seat in the 2014 polls. (PTI)
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