The vanishing parties & symbols of Tamil Nadu politics

A growing number of Tamil Nadu political parties are losing their state party status and in turn their symbols. The upcoming 2021 assembly election is crucial for the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK). If the party with Vijakant at the helm does not get the requisite votes it will lose the state party status and join an unenviable list of parties like the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) that have lost state party status over the past few decades. If it fails to secure 8% vote share or 6% and two MLAs in the forthcoming assembly elections, Vijayakant’s party would lose the state party status and its poll symbol ‘murasu’ would be withdrawn. medium80229275Tamil Nadu, as of now, has only three state parties — the AIADMK, the DMK and the DMDK. It was with a stellar performance, by securing 7.88% vote share and 29 seats, in the 2011 general elections to the state assembly that the DMDK made its presence felt in Tamil Nadu. The party, which was launched in 2005, had 8.38% votes and won one seat in 2006 assembly polls. It did not win any seat, but got 10.08% votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but slid to 5.19% votes in 2014 LS polls that came down to 2.19% in the last LS polls. The DMDK has not won a single seat in the polls after 2011. medium80227715But, by virtue of the EC rules which stipulate that the commission would review the performance of a party for continuing or withdrawing its recognition only after two general elections to the LS or state legislative assembly on the basis of which the party secured its national party or state party status, the DMDK has retained its symbol thus far. Since the party retained its state party status based on the 2011 assembly polls, it is on life-support till the 2021 general elections.Many parties across the country have gone through similar situations. Liberal amendments to party symbol rules, issued by the Election Commission (EC) on May 14, 2005, gave a reprieve to the MDMK and the PMK, which were facing the threat of derecognition owing to poor show in the polls. These parties, however, lost their state party status and symbols in later years. boxcontent medium80227268What is the Election Commission's eligibility criteria* An outfit is recognised as a state party if it fulfils either of these conditions* Secures 6% of valid votes polled in the assembly general elections and wins a minimum of two seats* In general election, it secures 6% of the valid votes polled and wins an MP seat * The party wins 3% seats in the general elections to the assembly or three seats, whichever is more * For every 25 Lok Sabha seats, it wins one MP in the LS polls The party gets 8% votes in the assembly or general elections The PMK won 18 MLAs and polled 5.65% vote share in 2006. In the subsequent LS polls in 2009, it increased the vote share to 5.71%, but lost all seats. In 2011, the party secured 5.23% vote share and won three MLAs. Though it won an MP in 2014, the vote share slid to 4.45%.Contesting alone in 232 seats in 2016 assembly polls, it improved the vote share to 5.32%, but lost all seats and lost deposit in 212 of them. Finally, the PMK lost its state party status in 2016. Thanks to the commission’s rule of giving preferential allotment of old symbols to political parties, the PMK managed to secure mango symbol in 2016 general elections. medium80229406The MDMK’s saga has never been inspiring. Vaiko’s party secured the state party status by winning four MPs in the 1999 LS polls, but it could secure only 4.65% votes in the 2001 assembly elections and lost deposits in 205 of the 211 seats it contested. The party lost the state party status in 2010 and failed to contest in the 2011 general elections. The TMC’s story is different as it was merged with the Congress in 2002, after the death of G K Moopanar. Though G K Vasan revived the TMC by breaking away from the Congress in 2014, it never measured up to the original TMC in strength. All the parties that lost the state party status slid to a category called registered unrecognised parties that vie for one among the 198 election symbols offered by the EC at the time of polls. Across India, there are 2,301 registered unrecognised parties, which 179 — close to 8% — are in Tamil Nadu. Many of them remain only on paper and tracing their addresses would be quite a task for the EC. Strange are the names of many of them. For instance, there is an All Prisoner’s Party registered in Tamil Nadu. Another party is christened Anna MGR Jayalalithaa Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. There is one named after father and mother — Appaama Makkal Kazhagam — and another one for lovers — Indian Lovers Party — and someone has named a party as brief as Patriot.boxcontent medium80230465Spike in number of registered unrecognised partiesThere are a total of 2,360 political parties registered with the Election Commission. 2,301 or 97.50% of registered political parties are unrecognised parties. The number of registered unrecognised political parties has increased two fold in the last 10 years. From 1112 parties in 2010, the number has spiked to 2,301 in 2019.Out of which 653 parties or 28.38% belong to Uttar Pradesh, followed by 291 parties or 12.65% from Delhi and 184 or 8% from Tamil Nadu.Source: Association for Democratic ReformsThe EC has repeatedly sought powers to deregister political parties for acts of omissions. Many of them remain only on paper, said former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy. “The Supreme Court, in 2001, said the EC has powers only to register parties and doesn’t have powers to deregister them, because the law does not permit it. Since then, every CEC has been writing letters to get the law amended to give powers to deregister political parties as well. But the government is not acting. If you have powers to do, you should have powers to undo too,” said Gopalaswamy. Still, the EC, in 2017, released a list of political parties that were deregistered between February and December of 2016 as they did not contest in any polls from 2005 to 2015 as per the commission’s records. Inquiries by the respective state chief electoral officers showed that some parties are no longer in existence. Interestingly, of the 255 parties that were delisted by the EC, 37 — about 15% — were from Tamil Nadu.Untitled Carousel 80344157