NCP to contest Delhi polls, regain national status: Ajit Pawar

Buoyant after its phenomenal performance in Maharashtra, as part of the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday declared its plans to contest the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections.

NCP chief Ajit Pawar, in the National Capital to participate in Union Home Minister Amit Shah-led deliberations on government formation in Maharashtra, said the outfit would work to regain its lost national party status.

Speaking to workers at the inauguration of NCP’s new North Avenue office here, Pawar said his next goal was Delhi Assembly elections.

“We need to work more now, we will fight and we will achieve success and regain national party status,” Pawar said, adding that the party will hold the NCP national convention in Delhi soon.

The NCP had lost the national party tag in April last year.

A political party is recognised as a national party if it satisfies any of the following conditions—is recognised in four or more states, if its candidates have polled at least 6% of total valid votes in any four or more states in the last Lok Sabha or Assembly elections and has at least four MPs in the last Lok Sabha polls; if it has bagged at least two per cent of the total seats in Lok Sabha from not less than three states.

At present the BJP, Congress, CPM, BSP, National People’s Party and Aam Aadmi Party are recognised as national parties by the Election Commission.

Pawar also slammed the Congress-led Opposition for blaming their Maharashtra loss on EVMs.

With these same EVMs and the same electoral rolls that the Opposition parties are now questioning, they had recently won the Maharashtra Lok Sabha elections.

“There is no truth in their accusations. They are blaming the EVMs because they failed to perform well in Assembly elections. With the same EVMs, these parties won elections in Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, West Bengal and Kerala.

The Congress-led Opposition parties are demanding a return to paper ballots after losing back to back elections in Haryana, and now Maharashtra.