Assembly Elections Effect: Only 3 political parties left with national status in India

New Delhi, October 21: The year 2014 has witnessed many surprises when it comes to politics. After the Lok Sabha elections, the outcome of

in

and

also have surprising results.

And now, the astonishing part is that the assembly election results will reduce the number of national political parties in the country to just three - the lowest since Independence.

With the numbers that have appeared in the assembly results, only the BJP, the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will enjoy the national status.

Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been reduced to dust with the BJP's stunning win in Haryana and Maharashtra.to retain their national party status. This has also reduced the chances of these parties keeping up their national status.

Parties have to fulfil one of the many conditions laid out, to keep up their National party status. At least four states have to recognise it as a political party. Either the parties should get at least 6% of the total votes in a state during the Lok Sabha or assembly election, or they should win a certain number of seats in either of the two Houses or combined.

There are certain regulations for a political party to enjoy a national status. Parties are required to poll a certain per cent of votes in both national and state elections and also have a stipulated number of seats in the Lok Sabha or assemblies or both to keep the coveted title.

Losing national status has problems as well. The NCP and the BSP may lose office space in the Capital.

Even losing monopoly over their party symbols - BSP's elephant and NCP's clock - remains the biggest threat. Once derecognised, EC can issue the symbols to other parties or Independents.

The least number of national parties was four in 1957.

OneIndia News