149 New political parties registered between Jan & March
India now has 2,293 political parties
New Delhi, Mar 17: "Bharosa Party", "Sabsi Badi Party", and "Rashtriya Saaf Niti Party" are some of the 2,300- odd political parties that India has on the eve of the 2019 general elections.
The Election Commission of India's latest data on political parties, registered till March 9, a day before the Lok Sabha elections were announced, reveal that the country is having a total of 2,293 political parties.
They include seven "recognised national" and 59 "recognised state" parties.
In fact, 149 political parties were registered with the poll panel between February and March on the eve of the announcement of the poll schedule.
Till February this year, the country had 2,143 political parties registered with the Commission, with 58 of them getting registered ahead of the assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh during November-December last year.
Some of the recently registered 149 parties include Bahujan Azad Party from Sitamarhi in Bihar, Samoohik Ekta Party from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Saaf Niti Party from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Sabsi Badi Party, Delhi, Bharosa Party from Telangana and New Generation People's Party from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
These registered but unrecognised political parties do not have the privilege of contesting elections on a fixed symbol of their own.
They have to choose from a list of 'free symbols' issued by the poll panel. According to the latest EC circular, there are 84 such free symbols available currently.
To become a recognised political party either at the state or national level, a party has to secure certain minimum percentage of polled valid votes or certain number of seats in the state legislative assembly or the Lok Sabha during the last election.
Fearing misuse of the provisions for financial contributions to political parties, the Election Commission had in 2016 asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes to look into the finances of 255 registered but unrecognised political parties it had "unlisted" that year for not contesting polls in the last one decade between 2005 and 2015.
There have been fears that most of such parties are used to 'round trip' the black money into white.
The EC had found that some of the parties were "no longer in existence or functioning".
While the poll watchdog has the mandate to register a political party, the electoral laws denies it the power to deregister any party.
With its demand to get power to deregister a party being pending with the Law Ministry, the Commission had used its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution to "unlist" parties for being dormant and not contesting elections for a long time.
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633 Indian students died abroad in last 5 yrs due to various reasons including natural causes: Govt
New Delhi (PTI): Six-hundred and thirty-three incidents of death of Indian students abroad were reported in the last five years due to various reasons including natural causes with Canada topping the list with 172 cases, the government said in Lok Sabha on Friday.
Separately, a total 19 Indian students died abroad due to attacks in the period with the highest of nine deaths reported from Canada followed by six in the US, according to details provided by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh.
Out of the 633 incidents of deaths, 108 were reported in the US, 58 in the UK, 57 in Australia and 37 were in Russia, the data showed.
Eighteen incidents were reported in Ukraine, 24 in Germany, 12 each in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Cyprus and eight such cases were reported in China.
"As per the information available with the Ministry, 633 incidents of death of Indian students abroad have been reported in the last five years due to various reasons including natural causes, accidents and medical conditions," Singh said in a written reply to a question.
"Providing safety and security to Indian students abroad is one of the top most priorities of the government of India. Indian missions/posts abroad maintain regular contacts with Indian students enrolled in universities abroad," he said.
To a separate question, Singh said a total of 48 Indian students have been deported from the US over the last three years.
"Reasons for deportation are not officially shared by the US authorities," he said.
"Unauthorised employment, unauthorised withdrawal from classes, expulsion and suspension, and failure to report optional practical training employment are some of the possible reasons which could lead to termination of a student's visa resulting in unlawful presence" and eventual deportation," he added.
