Question

Assertion (A): Every party in India has to register with the Election Commission.

Reason (R): The Government provides election symbols to all political parties in India.

Options

• Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

• Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

• (A) is true, but (R) is false.

• (A) is false, but (R) is true.

Answer 1

(A) is true, but (R) is false.

Explanation:

• Assertion (A) is true: According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), any association or body of individual citizens of India calling itself a political party must register itself with the Election Commission to contest elections under a formal banner.
• Reason (R) is false: The Election Commission of India (ECI): which is an independent constitutional body, allocates election symbols to political parties, not the government. Furthermore, the ECI does not just hand out unique symbols to all parties; while recognised national and state parties get permanent reserved symbols, unrecognised registered parties must choose from a pool of “free symbols” provided by the commission for each election.