By Kumar Vikram New Delhi, Sep 7 : The income tax department conducted raids in several states as part of an investigation into tax evasion against registered unrecognised political groups (RUPP) as well as their dubious fundingsources, data obtained from the poll panel showed that the registration of these political parties has seen an impressive increase in the past few years.
Election Commission data revealed that more than 500 political parties were registered with the panel of election officials between April 2019 and August 2021.
According to EC data the number of non-recognized political parties grown from 2,301 to 2,796 over the time period mentioned above, registering an increase of more than 20 percent.
According to the Election Commission, there were 694 of these political parties in 2001.
In the last two decades, the increase in registration of these parties has been 30 percent.The evidence suggests that there has been a rise in registration prior to elections to the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas.
The Election Commission has taken action to eliminate not recognized political parties.In May and June 2022 the Commission removed the 87 and 111 political parties.
The Commission has observed with grave concern that of the total of 2796 RUPPs many are not participating in the electoral process or adhering to any or a number of these requirements, including the submission of Contribution Reports; Annual Audit Statement Election Expenditure Statement and contesting Elections and so on.This is not only in violation of the laws and regulations and guidelines, but also undermines the goal of an election system that is clean.
A closer look at the 2019 Lok Sabha election data showed very little participation of these unrecognized parties in the elections.According to the EC only 0.06 percent of votes were won by these groups in 2019.
Sources have said that even though the registration procedure of political parties is simple however their involvement in illicit or corrupt activities cannot be dismissed.
In some instances, smaller parties can also be a source of the vote portion of the larger ones.These parties could also be used to launder money because they are exempt from taxation on income, claimed an official.
The lawyer explained the alleged activities of certain of these parties Advocate Umesh Sharma said that many of these parties have motives that are not clear.”Some are involved in fraudulent activities since they can take donations and benefit from tax exemptions, even if they do not contest elections.”
Sharma added that there are times when larger political parties make use of the infrastructure of these parties when they campaign.”There is a limit to the usage of vehicles, as well as logistical equipment.In such instances the logistics created in the names of non-recognised entities are used by the larger ones.”
kvm/bg
