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Maharashtra Poll Panel Deregisters 191 Parties Including Owaisi's AIMIM

These parties failed to submit income tax returns and audited accounts.
NEW DELHI, INDIA - NOVEMBER 27: President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi at the Parliament during the winter session, on November 27, 2015 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - NOVEMBER 27: President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Asaduddin Owaisi at the Parliament during the winter session, on November 27, 2015 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

The State Election Commission (SEC) in Maharashtra, which conducts local body polls, on Wednesday deregistered 191 local political parties including Asaduddin Owaisi's party India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), according to news reports.

These deregistered parties which allegedly failed to submit Income Tax returns and audited accounts to the regulator cannot contest the upcoming civic body elections in Mumbai.

The other parties that were derecognized include RPI-Khobragade faction, State Election Commissioner J S Saharia said here on Wednesday. According to Saharia, notices were served to 326 parties for failure to submit necessary documents.

So far, 359 political parties have been registered with the Commission. Of these, 17 are recognised parties, Saharia said.

Hyderabad-based leader Asaduddin Owaisi's party MIM or the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen has been as a political party in Maharashtra and can no longer contest civic body elections in Mumbai. It has two members in the state Assembly.

"We issued several notices requesting them to submit income tax returns and their audit reports. But they did not submit them. That is why the party has been derecognized," a spokesperson of the committee told NDTV.

Imtiaz Jaleel, the party's Aurangabad lawmaker, said that all relevant documents had been submitted. "This is simply shocking. We have submitted income tax returns for the past three years and all other relevant documents. We suspect there was political pressure," Jaleel told NDTV.

Owaisi's party has been gaining ground in some of the civic elections in the state when in 2012 it won 11 seats in the Nanded municipal polls. Last year, the party won 26 of the 54 seats it contested in the Aurangabad civic polls.

(With PTI Inputs)

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