Chandigarh, Sept. 20 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has delisted 474 Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs), including 21 from Punjab, for not contesting elections continuously for six years. According to an official release, 359 such RUPPs were identified for having not submitted their annual audited accounts in the last three financial years - from 2021-22 to 2023-24 - within the stipulated time period and for having contested elections but not filing election expenditure reports. These included 23 different states and UTs across the country, including 11 RUPPs from Punjab. Political parties (national/state/RUPPs) are registered with the ECI under the provisions of Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951. Under provisions of the Act, any association once registered as a political party, gets certain privileges and advantages such as symbols, tax exemptions amongst others. Guidelines for registration of political parties stipulate that if a party does not contest elections continuously for six years, it will be taken off the list of registered parties. As part of a comprehensive and continuous strategy to clean up the electoral system, the ECI has been conducting a nationwide exercise to identify and delist RUPPs which have failed to fulfil the essential condition of contesting even a single election for six years continuously, since 2019. In the first phase of this exercise, ECI had delisted 334 RUPPs on August 9, while 474 RUPPs were on September 18 on Thursday....