Cleaning up of the Electoral System Continues; ECI delists another 474 RUPPs; starts proceedings to delist 359 more RUPPs

1. Political  Parties  (National/State/RUPPs)  in  the  country  are  registered  with  the Election Commission India (ECI) under the provisions of Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951.

2. Under provisions of the Act, any association once registered as a political party, gets certain privileges and advantages such as symbol, tax exemptions amongst others.

3. Guidelines for registration of Political Parties mention that if the party does not contest elections continuously for 6 years, the party shall be taken off the list of registered parties.

4. As part of a comprehensive and continuous strategy to clean up the electoral system, the ECI has been conducting a nationwide exercise to identify and delist Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) which have failed to fulfil the essential condition of contesting even a single election for 6 years continuously, since 2019,

5. In the first phase of this exercise, ECI had delisted 334 RUPPs on August 9, 2025.

6. In continuation, in the second phase, ECI delisted 474 RUPPs on September 18,

2025 based on non-contestation in elections conducted by ECI continuously for 6 years. Thus, 808 RUPPs have been delisted in the last 2 months. (Annexure-A)

7. To take this initiative further, 359 such RUPPs have been identified, for having not submitted their Annual Audited Accounts in the last three financial years (i.e. 2021-

22, 2022-23, 2023-24) within the stipulated time period and have contested elections

but not filed Election Expenditure Reports. These are from 23 different States and

UTs across the country. (Annexure-B)

8. In order to ensure that no party is unduly delisted, the CEOs of the respective States/UTs have been directed to issue show-cause notices to these RUPPs following which, the parties will be given an opportunity through a hearing by the concerned CEOs.

9. The ECI takes the final decision on the delisting of any RUPP based on the reports of the CEOs.

State-wise distribution of RUPPs delisted in second phase

Annexure - A

Annexure - B

State-wise distribution of RUPPs identified for third phase of delisting