India, Sept. 10 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced a stricter verification process for the registration of new political parties under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The move comes as part of the ECI's broader effort to clean up the electoral system by identifying and removing non-functional or bogus political entities.

Political parties in India - national, state, or Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) - must be registered with the ECI under the law. However, officials aware of the matter told HT that "recent audits have shown that many RUPPs are either non-existent or no longer operational."

As part of its clean-up initiative, the ECI on August 9 de-listed 334 such RUPPs ...