Kolkata, Mar 3 (IANS): Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly and a BJP MLA, Suvendu Adhikari has urged the Election Commission of India (EC) to derecognise the Trinamool Congress as a national party.

In his letter to the EC, Adhikari has given a number of arguments in favour of his plea.

According to him, to get the national party status, a party needs to have two per cent of the total Lok Sabha seats in at least three states. "TMC has more than the required 11 Lok Sabha MPs, but they all are from the one state, West Bengal only. So, this criterion is not being fulfilled as the required number of MPs are not from at least three states and are from one state only," Adhikari's letter to EC read.

Moreover, the party should have six per cent of the total valid votes in any four or more states with at least two MLAs from each state. He pointed out that Trinamool Congress also does not meet this criterion of getting the national party status.

Trinamool Congress, he said, contested in three states other than West Bengal in the last five years. Of the three other states, its vote percentage 5.2 per cent in Goa without a single MLA, 0.88 per cent in Tripura without a single MLA and 13.78 per cent in Meghalaya with five legislators.

So it could only secure the minimum requirement of six per cent votes and minimum two MLAs in just West Bengal and Meghalaya," the letter read.

In the letter, he pointed out that ECI has already placed Trinamool Congress on notice asking why it should not be derecognised as a national party. "Trinamool Congress has requested for the continuation of the national party status till 2024, when India votes to elect the new government. The decision seems to be pending. In my opinion Trinamool Congress party should be scrapped of their national party status as of now and if in the future (which seems unlikely) they can meet the criterion, their undeserving national party status as of now could be restored," it further read.