Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 19: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has de-listed 12 registered unrecognised political parties from Jammu and Kashmir for failing to comply with the rules governing political outfits under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
As per the poll conducting body, the action has been taken against the parties that have not contested any election for the past six years, thereby losing their claim to remain on the rolls of the ECI.
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The EC further explained that the exercise is part of a larger drive to weed out non-functional parties across the country.
At the national level, the Election Commission removed 474 registered unrecognised political parties (RUPPs) in the second phase of its clean-up operation today. This followed a similar action on August 9 when 334 such parties were de-listed.
With both rounds combined, a total of 808 political outfits have been removed from the list in just two months.
The Commission said the exercise was carried out in view of parties not contesting elections for six consecutive years, besides instances where they could not even be physically traced at their registered addresses.
Till recently, there were 2,520 RUPPs in the country. After the de-listing, 2,046 remain, along with six recognised national parties and 67 state parties.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the parties removed from the list include the Nature Mankind Friendly Global Party led by former Minister in PDP-Congress dispensation, Jatinder Singh alias Babu Singh.
He was arrested in April 2022 in a hawala case after his worker was caught with Rs 6.90 lakh in Jammu.
Another party de-listed is the Jammu and Kashmir National Democratic Front, founded by former MP Abdul Rashid Kabuli, who had won the 1977 Assembly polls on a Janata Party ticket with the backing of the Awami Action Committee. Kabuli later joined the BJP.
The list also featured the Duggar Pradesh Party headed by late Uday Chand, Senior Vice-President of Kissan Sabha, who had contested the 2014 Assembly elections from Jammu West, and the Jammu and Kashmir Save Party formed in 2014 by GH Dar.
The Jammu State Morcha (Progressive), which contested 13 seats in the 2008 Assembly polls and one seat in 2014, has also been struck off.
All J&K Kissan Majdoor Party, Backward Classes Democratic Party J&K, Front of Revolutionised Creative Efforts, Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party (Secular), Kashmir Development Front (J&K), Secular Party of India, and Social Movement Party are the other de-listed parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
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