Unrecognised parties will be allowed to use earlier symbols

New Delhi: The Election Commission will grant a one-time concession to registered unrecognised parties by allotting them their earlier reserved symbol for a general election either to Lok Sabha or to a state Assembly, subject to certain conditions. Registered unrecognised parties are those organisations registered with the EC without having gained any recognition as national or state outfits. The decision was taken through an amendment in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, the EC said in a release. The concession comes in the wake of requests by many political parties, which had also moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Election Commission to consider making appropriate modifications in the Symbol Order. [caption id=“attachment_110060” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“This concession applies to unrecognised political parties. Reuters.”] [/caption] This one-time concession notified by the EC recently will be available to candidates sponsored by registered unrecognised political parties during a general election. To avail of such concession, the newly-formed registered unrecognised parties will have to contest general election from at least 10 per cent of the constituencies in a state, subject to minimum of five Assembly constituencies in a State having less than 50 Assembly Constituencies, and two Parliamentary Constituencies in a State having less than 20 Parliamentary constituencies. The intimation of such constituencies should be given to the Election Commission at least three days before the date of issue of election notification along with the choice of 10 symbols from the list of free symbols, the EC release said. A party that has availed of this concession once will not be eligible for the concession in any subsequent general election, the EC clarified. The Commission has also liberalised the criteria for recognition of outfits as state parties, under which one more clause has been added to the existing provisions of the Symbol Order. It provides that even if a party fails to win a seat in a state in a general election to the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party will still be eligible for recognition as state party if it secures 8 per cent or more of the total valid votes polled in the state. Under the existing provisions of the Symbol Order, a registered party has to secure at least six per cent of the total valid votes polled during general election to a state Legislative Assembly and should, in addition, win at least two seats in that Assembly, or the party should win at least three per cent of the total number of seats or three seats in the Legislative Assembly, whichever is more. Alternatively, a political party should secure at least six per cent of the total valid votes polled in a state during a general election to Lok Sabha and win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha from that state, or the party should win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction thereof allotted to that State. PTI