The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was on Monday accorded the status of a national party by the Election Commission, even as Sharad Pawar's NCP and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress lost their national party status along with Communist Party of India (CPI).
In an order issued on Monday, the ECI also withdrew the state party status given to late Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Andhra Pradesh, the PDA in Manipur, the PMK in Puducherry, the RSP in West Bengal, and the MPC in Mizoram.
The Commission said that the AAP has been nominated as a national party according to its electoral performance in four states namely Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power in Delhi and Punjab.
The poll panel said that the status of the NCP, the CPI, and the Trinamool as national political parties would be withdrawn.
The BJP, the Congress, the CPI-M, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the National People's Party (NPP) and the AAP are now the main national parties.
The EC also announced that the NCP and the Trinamool will be recognised as state parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya, respectively based on their performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
It also granted "recognised state political party" status to the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas in Nagaland, the Voice of the People Party in Meghalaya, and the Tipra Motha in Tripura.