The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was accorded the status of a national party by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday, April 10, even as Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress lost their national party status along with Communist Party of India (CPI). In its order, the ECI also withdrew the state party status given to late Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Andhra Pradesh, the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA) in Manipur, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Puducherry, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) in West Bengal, and the Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) in Mizoram.
The Commission said that the AAP has been nominated as a national party according to its electoral performance in four states — Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power in Delhi and Punjab. The poll panel also said that the status of the NCP, the CPI, and the Trinamool as national political parties would be withdrawn.
With the ECI’s latest decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), National People's Party (NPP) and the AAP are now the main national parties.
The EC also announced that the NCP and TMC will be recognised as state parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya respectively, based on their performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections. It also granted "recognised state political party" status to the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas in Nagaland, the Voice of the People Party in Meghalaya, and the Tipra Motha in Tripura.