IMPHAL, April 2 (NNN): The Manipur People’s Party (MPP) has claimed that the de-recognition of Manipur’s regional party by the Election Commission of India was according to rules but claimed that such a step will not affect the functioning of the party.
MPP President N Sobhakiran while addressing the media at the party’s office said such de-recognition is done on the basis of guidelines of regional parties, but such step will not affect the functioning of the party. He said as per the ECI guidelines, a regional party is de-recognised if it fails to succeed at least two MLAs in election or it must obtain 6 percent of the total votes.
MPP has been derecognized by ECI as it got only 4.02 percent votes in the last 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly elections, he noted.
It may be mentioned that the ECI de-recognised MPP on March 20, 2013.
N Sobhakiran further continued that it is not the first time that the ECI has de-recognized the party (MPP) on the same ground, adding that the ECI in 1977 had de-recognised it but that it revived after several candidates turned out to be victorious in subsequent general elections.
Sobhakiran further claimed that the MPP is a strong party, saying that Md Jalauddin Shah, who fought the last general elections on a NCP ticket joined the party yesterday.
The MPP president also said the party will hold its Central Committee meeting on April 7 and soon after that the party’s working president, Youth wing, Chanura wing and Kishan wing will be assigned with their respective tasks.