New Delhi, May 15: The Election Commission has given a sigh of relief to the leaders of the regional parties by issuing new guidelines, which would make it easier for them to attain status of national party.

Under the new guidelines, any political party fighting elections in at least four states can now claim the status of a national party.

Parties claiming national status will now have to win one out of 25 Lok Sabha seats contested.

Apart from that, if a party gets six percent votes out of the total votes base in a Lok Sabha election, and also wins one Lok Sabha seat, then also it can get the status of a regional party.

New rules and regulations will prove beneficial for the Samajwadi Party in Uttaranchal, the DMK in Tamil Nadu, and the PMK in Pondicherry, who can now become a regional parties.

It would also facilitate their entry into the national party club.

Earlier, the party status guidelines did not give any weightage to performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Only assembly elections were given importance.

The existing law stipulates that for a national party status, the party should have secured at least six per cent of total valid votes polled in four or more States won at least four seats or they should have won 11 seats from not less than three States.

For the State party status, the outfit should secure not less than six per cent of the total valid votes and two members in the State Assembly or win three per cent of the total number of seats in the Assembly.

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