1,866 registered political parties in India Only 6 are national parties

New Delhi/Hyderabad, August 10: There are 1,866 registered policital parties in the country as on July 24, 2015. The Election Commission (EC) gave the details in a statement. According to the EC, only 56 parties have the EC recognition. Of these, six (BJP, Congress, BSP, CPI, CPM and NCP) are national parties while the remaining are regional parties. As many as 239 parties have registered with EC during the 2014 general elections. Only 464 parties have fielded their candidates in the last Lok Sabha elections. Parties, who have organised political programmes for five years in any State or those parties that secured four per cent votes in Assembly or Lok Sabha elections, will get the EC recognition. The recognised parties can contest the elections on their own symbol. Unrecognised parties have to choose any of the 84 symbols available with the EC. Meanwhile, the Law Commission has proposed the Law Ministry in its report to cancel the registration of political parties that do not contest in Parliament and legislative assembly continuously for 10 years.