The party's over

EC does well to delist inactive political parties

The Election Commission’s (EC’s) move to delist 86 unrecognised political parties and declare 253 inactive is a sensible one in terms of electoral housekeeping. Since May this year, the EC has taken action against 537 non-compliant registered parties. The 86 parties deleted from the rolls of registered parties were found to be non-existent after physical checks were conducted by EC officers. The 253 parties that have been declared inactive had not contested a single election either to an Assembly or Parliament between 2014 and 2019. They were from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Both actions are critical. For one, many of these parties are suspected to have been set up to round-trip black money, so their removal cuts out one source of money laundering — in fact, the EC cited “serious financial impropriety” in at least three cases. For another, delisting or “inactivating” dormant parties prevents the crowding out of the electoral space by non-serious outfits, a point that the EC highlighted in its note. Third, these parties become ineligible for some significant benefits. Candidates belonging to political parties registered by the EC get preference in terms of allotment of free symbols that cannot be used by any other political party in elections across India even if they are not recognised.

If these parties fulfil EC criteria to be recognised as a “national” or state party — both of which are linked to a minimum percentage of votes, number of seats and states — the benefits that accrue are substantial. Recognised state and national parties, for instance, get two sets of electoral rolls free of cost from the EC and each candidate contesting general elections also gets a free copy of the electoral rolls. This apart, national parties receive land and buildings from the government to establish their party offices. National parties can have up to 40 “star campaigners” and state parties up to 20 — the implication of this label is that the travel and other expenses of such campaigners are not included in the election expenditure of the party’s individual candidates.

No less important, candidates of national parties get free time slots on national and state television and radio. But among the biggest benefits that are available to all registered parties, whether recognised or not, is that some entitlements such as collecting donations, income from property, and capital gains are fully exempt from income tax, a privilege that political parties have jealously guarded in the past. Over the past few months, the EC has sent to the department of revenue for action a list of 2,174 unrecognised parties that have not filed their contribution reports. This is not the first time the EC has moved against dodgy political set-ups. Between 2016 and 2018, the EC delisted 1,000 inactive parties. That action followed a Supreme Court ruling that barred the EC from deregistering a party. But the EC is within its rights to delist parties. It will need to continuously review the state of a large number of political parties that are not actively participating in the democratic process. Stringent scrutiny will discourage people from forming political parties only to take tax concessions and financial gains.