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Samata gets demoted to a regional party

The Samata Party of Defence Minister George Fernandes and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has lost its 'national party' status. The Election Commission today declared it a state party of Bihar, Manipur and Haryana.

The commission took the decision on the basis of the party's performance up to the 1998 general election.

An order issued by Chief Election Commissioner Manohar Singh Gill and Election Commissioners G V G Krishnamurthy and J M Lyngdoh under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order of 1968, however, allowed the party to retain its symbol of a 'flaming torch' in the three states.

After last year's elections to the Lok Sabha and the assemblies of Nagaland, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the commission reviewed the performance of the Samata Party. It also examined its performances in general and assembly elections from 1993 to 1997.

In Bihar, the party won 10 of the 54 Lok Sabha seats in 1998, polling 15.74 per cent of the total valid votes. It thus fulfilled the conditions under paragraph 6(2)(a)(b)(i) and paragraph 6(2)(b) of the order to be recognised as a state party of Bihar.

The commission said the party's performance in the assembly elections in Haryana and Manipur held in 1996 and 1995, respectively, qualified it to be recognised as a party of those states as well.

But in all other states and Union territories, including Chandigarh, where the party had secured recognition under paragraph 6(2)(b) in the 1996 general election, its performance fell short of the standards required for recognition.

The party was thus recognised as a state party in only three states, Bihar, Manipur and Haryana. And under the Election Symbols Order, a party has to have a presence in at least four states to be recognised as a national party.

Before the order withdrawing recognition was issued, the party was served a show-cause notice on December 17, 1998, asking it to make a representation to the commission before January 15, 1999. But no reply was received.

General secretary Jaya Jaitly appeared before the commission on February 1, 1999, and prayed for time to enable the party to collect material from its units and candidates who had contested elections.

The party was allowed one month and the next hearing was fixed for March 19. March 10 was fixed as the last date for submitting written representations.

But again the party made no representation, forcing the commission to assume it had nothing to state.

UNI

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