With the Assembly elections expected in 2026, West Bengal’s chief electoral officer (CEO) has ordered the verification of the addresses of political parties that are registered with the commission but are unrecognised.

According to sources in the Election Commission, there are eight recognised political parties and close to 70 registered but unrecognised parties in the state. Parties like Amra Bangali, Paradise Party, Bahujan Mukti Party, All India Labour Party, Bhumiputra Party, and Hindustan Shakti Sena are registered but have not taken part in any election for a long time.

The sources said the office of CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal had recently held a virtual meeting with the district election officers (DEOs) and asked them to carry out a field verification to ascertain such registered parties’ current status.

The CEO’s office has directed the DEOs to report whether these parties have taken part in the last three elections and whether they have submitted any audit report of their expenditure.

According to an official of the State Election Commission, both recognised and unrecognised political parties have to submit audit reports regarding their income and expenditure, but most of them have not submitted the reports, raising questions such as whether these parties exist merely on paper.

Either these unrecognised parties do not exist anymore or their office addresses have changed without the commission being informed of the new addresses, as communications sent to many of them have been returned without any reply, the official said.