Trinamool Congress to get national party status

At present, the Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPM are recognised as national parties. The TMC, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will join the club this month. This means the party will be entitled to exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol — flower and grass — to fight Assembly and Lok Sabha elections anywhere in the country.

The upgrade would not have happened had the Election Commission not amended its Symbols Order last week to allow all political parties to retain their state and national party status for every two election cycles or every 10 years. Earlier, this was reviewed every five years.

Had this rule not changed, the Trinamool Congress would have lost its state party status in Arunachal Pradesh after its poor showing during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — party secured only 1.5 per cent of the vote share. In order to retain its state party status the party should have polled at least 8 per cent of votes. But the amendment now requires all state parties to meet this criterion every 10 years, instead of five. The party was recognised as a state party in Tripura following its impressive performance in the last Lok Sabha 2014 polls.
It secured 9.74 per cent vote share, which made the party eligible for national party status.