TBI Blogs: Everything You Need to Know About How Political Parties Become State and National Parties

The Trinamool Congress recently became the 7th political party to be recognized as a National Party in the country. But when is a political party recognized as a National or State Party?

The All India Trinamool Congress recently became the 7th political party to be recognized as a National Party in the country, with the BJP, Congress, CPI, CPI(M), BSP & NCP being the other six national political parties. But when is a party recognized as a State or National Party?

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The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968

A registered political party is accorded the status of a recognized state or national party as per the criteria listed in ‘The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.’ This order has been amended from time to time.

Recognition as a State Party

For any political party to be eligible for recognition as a State Party in a state, it has to satisfy any of the five conditions listed below.

In brief, the five conditions are:

Recognition as a National Party

For any political party to be eligible for recognition as a National Party, it has to satisfy any of the three conditions listed below.

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In brief, the three conditions are:

Trinamool Congress is now recognized as a National Party as it has satisfied the eligibility criteria for a State Party in the four states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur & Arunachal Pradesh.

Though some of the other six national parties did not perform as well in the recently held elections, their national party status is intact following an amendment made to the allotment rules recently. Their status will now be reviewed only after the next general election.

Advantages of being recognized as a State or National Party

Image Source: Flickr

The biggest advantage of being recognized is getting the reserved symbol. A party recognized as a state party gets a reserved symbol from the list of free symbols. All the candidates contesting from that party will get the same symbol throughout the state. For National Parties, the reserved symbol can be used across the country by its contesting candidates.

There are also other advantages to the recognized parties like subsidized land for party offices, free air time on Doordarshan & All India Radio, supply of electoral roll copies free of cost during elections etc.

Featured image source: Flickr

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