NCPI's new avatar faces EC test; must inform, attest all changes

With Trinamool Congress rebels claiming a 'merger' with the obscure Nationalist Citizen Party of India (NCPI) -- a Registered Unrecognised Political Party (RUPP) -- rather than splitting to form a 'real TMC', it is now the new avatar of the NCPI that will have to reckon with the Election Commission rulebooks.

Firstly, the NCPI must immediately inform the poll panel of the latest changes effected -- from 20 MPs suddenly joining it to changes in the party leadership and adherence to the original party constitution, among others.

Reason: Section 29 A(9) of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 mandates every political party to communicate 'any change in its name, head office, office-bearers, address or in any other material matters' to the Commission 'without delay'.


These changes are already in effect, with the rebel TMC faction having reportedly written to the Lok Sabha Speaker about its 'merger' with the NCPI, which was registered in West Bengal as recently as in 2023.

There are also reports of the NCPI primary membership and leadership changing hands -- shifting from one Sheuli Kundu to TMC rebel leader Kakoli Dastidar, who is said to have now been elected party president.

ECI rulebooks require that all such changes be communicated to it at the earliest possible, complete with details on the process followed, full official proceedings and minutes recording approval of the changes. The ECI also examines the composition of the party's executive committee and its role in the election process before affirming party status.

Critics of the TMC rebels 'merger' are already pointing out to the intriguing case of NCPI and compare it to a 'shell company' like mechanism -- given that it emerged only in 2023 and has had a negligible electoral presence or participation.

The NCPI case, in fact, will prove to be an interesting one as the ECI is alongside engaged in a major RUPP purging exercise since 2022.

To add to this, the EC's purge is reportedly triggered by apprehensions that RUPPs are allegedly being used as fronts for money laundering as political parties are granted income-tax exemption.

These apprehensions became stronger given the increase in their numbers -- a 300% growth over the last two decades -- rising from 694 in 2001 to 2,796 by 2022.

EC, in fact, has de-registered hundreds of RUPPs since 2022 citing that it found a large number was neither taking part in electoral process nor adhering to requirements such as submission of Contribution Reports; Annual Audit Statement: Election Expenditure Statement, Contesting in Elections, etc which, not said, is violative of statutory requirements and extant guidelines

For instance, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, only 623 out of the total 2,354 RUPPs at that time were found to have contested elections.

The TMC rebel-merger case, however, is not without precedent.

There have been past examples of similar cases that came to the EC when rebels jumped onto or took over such RUPPs for arguably politically expedient reasons.

One such case from 1996-97 involved a dispute over the true claimant of the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) after its leader ND Tiwari returned to the parent party, the Indian National Congress. Among the claimants to the party were Satpal Maharaj and Sisram Ola both of whom later returned to the INC-while controversial politician/businessman Romesh Sharma threw his hat into the ring; this issue was settled only after Sharma's arrest in the infamous Budhiraja murder case.

There was also the case of Yogendra Makwana who left the Congress in 2008 to preside over the National Bahujan Party, timing it perfectly with a party of the same name from Maharashtra that 'merged' with it.