National People's Party (NPP) is likely to be granted national party status by the Election Commission of India (ECI) this week.
Sources saidthat the NPP has fulfilled the required criteria to qualify as a national partyafter winning five seats in the recently held Arunachal Pradesh LegislativeAssembly election.
The ECI islikely to announce the granting of national party status this week. According tosources, the NPP had applied for the national party status and it will be thefirst political party from the Northeast to get the status.
The NPP wasfounded by former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Agitok Sangam in January 2013 andpresently is a partner in the ruling NDA in the Centre. The veteran Garo leaderand the tallest parliamentarian from northeast had floated the party after hisexpulsion from the National Congress Party (NCP).
The NPP had contestedthe assembly election in Rajasthan in December 2013 immediately after its birthunder the leadership of Kirodi Lal Meena and had won four seats.
NPP is thesingle largest political party in Meghalaya and has 21 members in the 60-memberhouse. The part has four MLAs in Manipur and Y. Joykumar Singh is the DeputyChief Minister of the state and it is also recognized as a state party inNagaland.
The ECIreport states that a party is eligible to get the national party status if itis recognized as state party in at least four states. At present, there areseven national parties in India and it is the Trinamool Congress led by MamataBanerjee in West Bengal which has been recognized as the seventh national partyin India in September 2016.
Recognition asa national party ensures that the election symbol of that party is not used byany other political entity across India. The party's election symbol is thebook. Besides, the national parties are allocated land or buildings from thegovernment to set up their party offices in New Delhi.
