The party's over

EC does well to delist inactive political parties

The Election Commission’s (EC’s) move to delist 86 unrecognised political parties and declare 253 inactive is a sensible one in terms of electoral housekeeping. Since May this year, the EC has taken action against 537 non-compliant registered parties. The 86 parties deleted from the rolls of registered parties were found to be non-existent after physical checks were conducted by EC officers. The 253 parties that have been declared inactive had not contested a single election either to an Assembly or Parliament between 2014 and 2019. They were from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Both actions are critical. For