AAP now national party; NCP, Trinamool lose tag: How is a ‘national party’ in India defined

Source: The post is based on the article “AAP now national party; NCP, Trinamool lose tag: How is a ‘national party’ in India defined” published in The Indian Express on 11^th April 2023.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Governance

Relevance: About national and state parties

News: The Election Commission has recognised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a national party, while revoking that status of the All-India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

What is a national party?

A party with a national presence is known as a national party. These are usually bigger parties like Congress and BJP. However, some smaller parties are also recognized as national parties.

What are the current National Parties?

The BJP, Congress, CPI(M), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People’s Party (NPP) and the AAP are the national parties now.

How is a party recognized as a national party?

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How is a party recognized as a state party?

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A party needs to have at least one MP for every 25 members, or any fraction allotted to the state in the Lok Sabha.

How did AAP fulfil the criteria of being a national party?

AAP has very large vote shares in Delhi and Punjab. In the Goa Assembly elections last year, it received 6.77% of the vote. This way it already fulfilled the criteria for recognition as a state party in three states.

It then required 6% of the vote in the Assembly elections in either Himachal or Gujarat last year to be recognized in a fourth state.

It received almost 13% vote in Gujarat which was more than double the required to be recognized as a state party there. That made it to four states and qualified for the national party.