One person-one seat: Election Commission of India proposal to Law Ministry

As per the present scenerio, one eligible person can contest elections from two different seats or constituencies.

The move comes in the wake of the recent delisting of 284 registered unrecognized political parties (RUPPs) by the poll commission as defaulters and defaulters, of which more than 253 were notified.

In accordance with the statutory requirements of Section 29A of the RP Act, each political party shall immediately notify the Commission of any change in its name, headquarters, head of office, address and PAN.

86 Registered Unrecognized Political Parties were found to be non-existent through physical verification by the Chief Electoral Officer of the concerned State/UT or based on reports of undelivered letters/notices sent by the post office to the state-registered address.

The decision against 253 non-compliant RUPPs was taken based on the seven states of Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, which was taken on the basis of a report received by the Chief Electoral Officer.

These 253 RUPPs were declared inactive as they did not respond to letters/notices sent to them and did not contest any state assembly or assembly elections in 2014 and 2019. These RUPPs have not met the statutory requirements for more than 16 compliance steps since 2015.

In his letter written to Union law Minister Kiren Rijiju in September, CEC also proposed to cap cash donation at 20 percent or at ₹20 crore whichever is lower, sources told ANI.

The sources on Saturday said that the Election Commission has proposed bringing down anonymous political donations from ₹20,000 to ₹2,000 to cleanse election funding of black money.

In the letter, the CVC proposed several changes to the Law on Representation of the People. Under the proposal, political parties need not report cash received of less than ₹2,000. As per existing rules, political parties are required to disclose all donations above ₹20,000 through a donation report filed with the ECI.

Earlier, as part of an all-India tax evasion probe, the Income Tax Department conducted raids in several states targeting certain Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) and their alleged suspicious financial transactions.

These actions were taken by the Department in accordance with the latest recommendations. The Election Commission recently removed at least 198 units from its RUPP list after they were found non-existent during the physical verification process.

The poll panel said it is taking action against more than 2,100 entities it classifies as RUPPs for violating rules and election laws, including those related to submitting cash contributions without updating their address and office person’s name.

With the inputs from ANI