Parties not fighting local polls in next 5 yrs to be

Maharashtra State Election Commissioner J SSaharia today said the registration of political parties will be cancelled if they don't contest the local self government bodies election in the next five years.

Similarly, political parties will lose their registration if they don't publish a report on fulfilment of assurances mentioned in their manifestos for the information of voters, Saharia said in a statement.

"Since 2004, political parties are being registered with the state election commission (SEC) for the local self government bodies elections," Saharia said.

"The commission has amended its rules and as per its order dated July 25, 2018, the parties need to contest at least one seat in the local self government bodies in the next five years," he added.

Political parties will also need to publish a report for information of the voters as to how many assurances given in the manifesto have been fulfilled. The parties will need to publish an advertisement stating it on their website every year, Saharia said.

The parties will also have to submit a copy of their manifesto to the municipal commissioner or district collector.

"If the report is not published for two consecutive years, registration of the parties will be cancelled," he said.

Meanwhile, for registration, political parties can now submit an application to the district collector instead of the SEC. After verifying it, the collector will forward the application to the state election office.