EC hangs sword of derecognition over CPM’s head

NEW DELHI, SEPT 6: It couldn't have come at a worse time. The Assembly elections to West Bengal and Kerala -- the two states where the Com...

NEW DELHI, SEPT 6: It couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Assembly elections to West Bengal and Kerala — the two states where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has a tangible presence — are round the corner. And the Marxist party gets a call from the Election Commission that it’s national party status is under serious threat.

The CPM is due to appear before the Election Commission on September 8 to defend its status as a national party. But the case that the only Marxist party in India will be fighting is not in its favour.

Not unlike its position in West Bengal, where its octogenarian Chief Minister for 24 years and the prime vote-catcher, Jyoti Basu, is calling quits from politics and temperamental Trinamool Congress chief-cum-Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee is running roughshod over its government.

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At the Election Commission, the CPM stands to lose its recognition on grounds that it no longer fulfills the criteria laid down in the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968.

As per the order, a political party needs to secure six per cent of the votes polled in a state or have one member of every 30 members in the state Assembly or one members for every 25 members in the Lok Sabha from the state to enjoy the status of a state party.

Once a party gets this recognition in at least four states, it qualifies as a national party.

Before the 1999 general and Assembly elections, the CPM had the status of a state party in West Bengal, Tripura, Kerala and Andhra Pardesh. But the CPI-M’s performance dipped in Andhra in the last general elections.

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Taking note of the changed scenario well in advance, the CPI-M has been challenging the Election Symbols Order, 1968, before the Commission.

Pointing out that it is the third largest group in the Lok Sabha with more than 30 members, it has been calling the order “outdated”. The CPI-M, in fact, asking for an amendment in the order in manner such that its presence in the Upper House is taken into account.

“We believe, the criteria for recognition as a national party should be changed to a criteria of minimum presence in the Lok Sabha,” one of senior CPI-M leaders said.

But this is not the only issue which is giving the party headaches. With Mamata raising the bogey on serious law and order failure in West Bengal and the Kerala High Court order directing a plea to the EC against the party’s coercive practices in the state, its chances in the two remaining states are also diminishing.

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The Commission is slated to hear the plea by Kochi-based Institution of Social Welfare which is seeking the de-registration of the CPM (which is the senior partner of the ruling coalition in Kerala) for unconstitutionally indulging in coercion to enforce a hartal.

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