EC bars ultra-Hindutva party that gave ticket to Graham Staines' killer

Krantikari Manuwadi Morcha among the 255 political parties that were de-registered by EC in 2016

Of the 255 political parties that were de-registered by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 2016, 44 are from the states that will go to the polls between February 4 and March 8 this year.
 
In Uttar Pradesh (UP) 32 parties were deregistered, and in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, going to polls on February 15, two parties were struck off the list. In Punjab and Goa, which go to polls on February 4, six and four parties were deregistered, respectively.
 
Among the parties struck off the list in UP is the ultra-Hindutva outfit, Krantikari Manuwadi Morcha (KMM). It is an anti-reservation party formed in 2000 that wanted India to be converted into a society that follows the tenets prescribed in the ‘Manu Smriti’, a treatise that lays down the code of moral, social, political and economic conduct in Hinduism. In the 2002 UP Assembly election, this party had given a ticket to Dara Singh, the murderer of Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons. Another party candidate RK Bharadwaj had managed to garner 531 votes in the 2002 UP polls from Dadri. The town was in the news recently for the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq, after rumours spread that his family was in possession of beef.
 
KMM is reported to have lost popularity after the Sangh Parivar distanced itself for the outfit.
 
In Punjab, two breakaway outfits have finally been struck off the ECI’s list. Among them, Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal was formed by Gurcharan Tohra after splitting from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in 1999. Though the party was dissolved in 2003 after Tohra’s reconciliation with SAD President Parkash Singh Badal, it continued to be recognised as a party until recently. The other outfit that was struck off the list was Democratic Bahujan Samaj Morcha, a breakaway of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) which remerged with the BSP in 2004.
 
In Goa, two Congress breakaway factions have been de-registered. These are the Goa People’s Congress and the Goa Rajiv Congress Party. While the former had come back into the Congress fold in 2000, the latter had merged with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999.
 
ECI deregistered these parties after a lengthy verification process. It has also asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to investigate the funding of these parties. ECI’s letter to CBDT, dated December 21, 2016, states that it identified parties for deregistration after they failed to put up any candidate for parliamentary or state Assembly elections between 2005 and 2015. The Chief Electoral Officer in each state then visited the offices of these parties to ascertain whether they still continued to function from their premises. None of these parties were found to be operating from the addresses they had given to ECI. CBDT, meanwhile, is suspecting that many of these parties might have been used as vehicles for money laundering. According to the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, any donation below Rs 20,000 is not required to be reported by the party to ECI.

 

Ultra-Hindutva party among those deregistered by Election Commission
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