BJP wants EC review on bringing parties under RTI

While the Chief Information Commissioner wants the national political parties to come under the Right to Information (RTI), the BJP Tuesday said the decision should be reviewed by the Election Commission.

"We believe the Election Commission should give an opinion on this issue," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Prakash Javadekar told IANS.

"This is an issue concerning the political parties and it will be in the purview of Election Commission as well," he said.

Party spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi added that the since many senior party leaders were travelling and the meeting of the party's national executive was just a few days away, detailed discussions on the issue will be held later.

"We are going to have a major consultation at the end of this week," Lekhi said.

A Full Bench headed by Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra has held that six political parties - the Congress, the BJP, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Communist Party of India (CPI) , the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - fulfill the criteria of being public authorities under the Right to Information law.

"We have no hesitation in concluding that the Congress, the BJP, CPI-M, the CPI, the NCP and the BSP have been substantially financed by the central government and, therefore, they are held to be public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act," said the CIC decision.