Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has finally got elevated to a national party status by the Election Commission. Currently, the party is in power in two states-Delhi and Punjab.

AAP emerged out of the famous Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement in 2012.

AAP gets national party status

The Election Commission (EC) said that AAP has been named as the national party based on the political approach and performance in the four states- Delhi, Goa, Punjab and Gujarat.

The AAP convener has termed this achievement and the status upgradation as a huge responsibility and nothing less than a miracle that the party has archived the status in record time.

Kejriwal takes Twitter

Taking to Twitter, Arvind Kejriwal wrote in Hindi, “National party in such a short time? This is nothing less than a miracle. Many congratulations to all. Crores of people of the country have taken us here. People expect a lot from us. Today people have given us this huge responsibility. Lord, bless us to fulfil this responsibility well.”

Despite this AAP being named as a national party, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool (TMC) have suffered a major setback. Both parties have been downgraded to the status of regional parties. Also, the CPI too was assigned the regional party status.

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What’s the benefit of becoming a national party?

Basically, the tag of being a national party can allow an organization or a political party to get a common poll symbol across the nation. Several star campaigners, free air time on national broadcasters for election campaigns and convention office space in the national capital, Delhi.

According to the given rules and norms, to become a national party, it has to be a recognised state party in four or more states (or) must have 2 per cent seats in Lok Sabha.

Once a party loses national party status, it cannot get a common symbol for its candidates in states where it’s not recognised.

6 national parties

After the announcement, in the country’s multi-party system, now onwards there will be six national parties- the Congress, BJP, CPI(M), Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, the National People’s Party (NPP) and the latest entrant, AAP.

Speaking to the media, AAP MP Raghav Chaddha said, “All of us at AAP are thrilled at this good news. I congratulate every single worker of AAP who worked tirelessly through the last decade to make AAP a success. Under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, AAP is India’s fastest-growing political start-up.”

Further, he said, “Despite all odds, despite every single trick in the book to eliminate AAP from the national political space, AAP is going strength-to-strength.”