Srinagar: The Election Commission on Friday deregistered 12 political parties from the Union Territory.
According to an official order, the poll body struck off the registration of 12 parties for failing to contest any election in Jammu & Kashmir over the past six years.
These parties did not participate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, or the 2024 Assembly polls—the three electoral exercises conducted by the Election Commission since 2019 in J&K.
The parties identified by the Commission include: Backward Classes Democratic Party, Duggar Pradesh Party, Front of Revolutionised Creative Efforts, Jammu & Kashmir Peoples Party (Secular), Kashmir Development Front, Jammu & Kashmir National Democratic Front, Nature Mankind Friendly Global Party, Jammu & Kashmir Save Party, Secular Party of India, Jammu State Morcha (Progressive), Social Movement Party, and Secular Party of India.
Although many of the delisted parties were relatively obscure, three were either founded by prominent political figures or rooted in significant causes.
Jammu State Morcha was formed on the eve of 2002 Assembly elections to advocate for a separate state for Jammu.
The Jammu & Kashmir National Democratic Front was headed by Abdur Rashid Kabuli, who won on a Janata Party ticket in 1977 from the Eidgah segment of Srinagar. Kabuli was supported by the Awami Action Committee, which was declared an unlawful association by the Central Government in 2025.
The Nature Mankind Friendly Global Party is led by Babu Singh, a former minister in the PDP-Congress government. He was arrested in a Hawla case in 2022. (KNO)
