ECI removes 86 RUPPs from list of registered political parties, total expunged RUPPs rise up to 284

Continuing with its drive against the Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs), the Election Commission of India led by Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, further enlisted 86 non-existent RUPPs and declared additional 253 as ‘Inactive RUPPs’. This action against 339 non-compliant RUPPs takes the tally to 537 defaulting RUPPs since May 25, 2022.

As per statutory requirements under section 29A of the RP Act, every political party has to communicate any change in its name, head office, office bearers, address, PAN to the Commission without delay. 
86 RUPPs have been found to be non-existent either after a physical verification carried out by the respective Chief Electoral Officers of concerned states/UTs or based on report of undelivered letters/notices from Postal Authority sent to the registered address of concerned RUPP.

It may be recalled that ECI had delisted 87 RUPPs and 111 RUPPs vide orders dated May 25, 2022 and June 20, 2022 thus totaling the number of delisted RUPPs to 284.
This decision against 253 non-compliant RUPPs has been taken based on reports received from Chief Electoral Officers of seven states namely Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

These 253 RUPPs have been declared inactive, as they have not responded to the letter/notice delivered to them and have not contested a single election either to the General Assembly of a state of the Parliament Election 2014 and 2019. These RUPPs have failed to comply with statutory requirements for more than 16 compliance steps since 2015 and are continuing to default.

As per reports, it has been noted that of the 253 parties, 66 RUPPs actually applied for a common symbol as per para 10B of the Symbol’s Order 1968 and did not contest the respective elections. 
It is pertinent to note that privilege of a common symbol is given to RUPP based upon an undertaking for putting up at least 5 percent of total candidates with regard to said legislative assembly election of a state.