Two political parties deleted by EC

Two political parties deleted by EC CHENNAI: Political parties started by two former Union ministers from Tamil Nadu following their defection from the Congress P Chidambaram's Congress Jananayaka Peravai (CJP) with the registered address at Kilpauk and Vazhapadi Ramamurthy's Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress (TRC) at R A Puram are among the 255 registered unrecognised political parties that have

been removed from the list by the Election Commission a few days ago.

Though both the parties merged with the Congress, as per the EC records, they were on the list of registered political parties which did not contest any election between 2005 and 2010.

Chidambaram started the new party in 2001 as he did not agree with G K Moopanar joining hands with AIADMK. He merged it with Congress on the eve of 2004 Lok Sabha elections and contested from Sivaganga constituency. Ramamurthy formed the party in 1994 and later merged it with the Congress and died shortly afterwards.

"Based on verification by the chief electoral officer of all states and Union territories, it has been reported to the Commission that some parties are no longer in existence or functioning," said a release issued by the Commission on Wednesday. Out of 255, parties as per Section 29A and para 17 of the Election Symbols (reservation and allotment) Order, 1968. there are around 37 parties from the state that were delisted and many of these have Congress, Dravida or MGR as prefix or suffix to their party names.

"As there is no annual membership fee or any other cost for the parties to keep their registration intact with the EC, many parties don't formally inform the Election Commission about merger of the party with another or disbanding it. Unless the EC gets a formal communication, the names of parties will remain as an unrecognised but registered party," former chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami told TOI.

"I am surprised to know that the party's name was there with the EC still as by November 2004, the CJP ceased to exist after its merger with the Congress. For us the matter ended with that," said Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram.

Just before 2016 Assembly, more than 1,000 names of Independents and smaller parties were deleted as they did not send in annual accounts as the EC rules mandate.