In what comes as a relief for six political parties — including All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Musalmeen (AIMIM) and the Ramdas Athawale-led RPI — the State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM) on
In what comes as a relief for six political parties — including All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Musalmeen (AIMIM) and the Ramdas Athawale-led RPI — the State Election Commission of Maharashtra (SECM) on Tuesday restored their recognition after these parties submitted their audit reports and paid a fine of '1 lakh each. The commission had derecognised 197 parties last month as they had failed to submit income tax returns within the stipulated timeframe.
“We had considered requests from eight parties for an extension of the date for the submission of the papers after paying the fine. These six parties have submitted the papers and hence their status has been restored. The remaining two parties have been given a date of this month-end for the submission,” said state election commissioner J.S. Saharia.
He added that as per the rules, political parties registered with the SEC have to annually submit their audited accounts and filed IT returns.
The derecognising process allows parties to contest local body polls, but the candidates are considered to be independent. The same party’s candidates might not get the same election symbol and are hence treated as independent. The SECM’s role is restricted to local body polls, and thus the decision left the parties largely unaffected when it came to general and Assembly elections.
There are 359 political parties registered with the SECM, which includes 17 recognised national political parties. The remaining 342 political parties are unrecognised political parties. The SECM had, in stages, sent notices to 326 such unrecognised parties. However, 191 of them failed to submit any papers, forcing the SECM to deregister them.
Happy to know that the party’s original status has been restored, AIMIM MLA from Mumbai Waris Pathan said the party’s workers are in a jubilant mood.
“We had full faith that the election commissioner would restore our status. There was a minor lapse on our part. We have clarified that and submitted all the papers. However, some Opposition parties were celebrating when the AIMIM was derecognised. But now, the election commission’s decision has paved the way for us to contest polls across the state,” Mr Pathan said.
