National Party Status

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Why in News?

The Election Commission has recognised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a national party and withdrew the national party status of the All India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The EC has also removed state party status granted to Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh, Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in Andhra Pradesh, People’s Democratic Alliance in Manipur, Pattali Makkal Katchi in Puducherry, Revolutionary Socialist Party in West Bengal and Mizoram People’s Conference in Mizoram.
Now the country has five national parties– Bahujan Samaj Party, Bhartitya Janta Party(BJP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Criteria for a National Party Status:

According to the Election Commission, any of these three conditions need to be met if a party is to be called a “national party”.
- A party’s candidates in a minimum of four states must get at least 6 per cent of the total votes polled in each of those states in the last national election. In addition to this, it should have won four seats in the Lok Sabha.
- A party should win a minimum of 2 per cent of the total seats in the Lok Sabha. The party’s candidates should have been elected from not less than three states.
- A party is recognised as a “state party” in at least four states.

Q1) What is Multi-party democracy?

A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political parties have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coalition. In other words, multiparty systems are systems in which more than two parties are represented and elected to public office

Source: Explained: Why Trinamool, NCP And CPI Are No Longer National Parties