The Election Commission of India on Thursday brought in new rules for allocation of symbols to Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs), making it mandatory for them to furnish audited accounts of last three financial years, expenditure statements of last two elections, and the signature of the authorised office-bearer of the party along with the application form for symbols.
RUPPs are either newly-registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in the Assembly or general election to become a State party, or those that have never contested elections after being registered. Common symbols are provided to RUPPs based upon an undertaking that they would put up “at least 5% of total candidates with regard to said Legislative Assembly election of a State”.
In order to ensure transparency, the EC had in 2014 given directions that RUPPs wanting to avail the benefits of having a common symbol have to submit the proof of having filed up-to-date contribution reports, audited annual accounts, update of election expenditure statements, and their latest organisation details.
