After Singur, another victory for Mamata Banerjee - Trinamool Congress is now 7th national party

The ECI has accorded national party status to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, which rules in West Bengal.

New Delhi: In yet another victory for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Election Commission of India on Friday accorded national party status to her political outfit The All India Trinamool Congress.

News agency ANI reported that Trinamool Congress has now become the country’s seventh national level political party.

The Election Commission of India agreed to recognise the Trinamool Congress as a national party since it fulfilled one of the three conditions laid down in the Symbols Order, 1968.

According to the criteria set by the apex poll panel, a “national party” needs to win at least two percent of the total seats in the Lok Sabha (11 seats) from at least three different states, or get at least six percent votes in four states in addition to four Lok Sabha seats, or be recognised as a “state party” in four or more states.

The Trinamool Congress has met the last condition.

It is a state party in West Bengal, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

At present, the Congress, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPM are recognised as national parties.

The TMC, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is the latest entrant to this club.

This means the party will now be entitled to exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol — flower and grass — to fight Assembly and Lok Sabha elections anywhere in the country.