The Aam Aadmi Party has earned the title of a national party after winning two seats and securing over 12 percent of votes polled in the recently-concluded Gujarat Assembly elections.

As of now, India has seven national parties and the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is aiming to join the list before the 2024 general elections.

Kejriwal had tweeted out his ambition to be recognised as a national party after AAP managed to grab a couple of seats in the Goa election.

After Delhi and Punjab, AAP is now a state recognised party in Goa too. If we get recognised in one more state, we will officially be declared as a “national party”

I congratulate each and every volunteer for their hard work. I thank the people for posing faith in AAP n its ideology pic.twitter.com/7UmsIixF0v— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 9, 2022

How does a party become a national party?

A political party gets the 'national party' status after it is recognised in at least four different states, as per the Election Commission rules. To be recognised in a state, a party needs to win at least two seats and garner a minimum of six percent votes polled in an assembly election.

AAP's Gujarat hopes

Just last year, AAP replaced the Congress as the second-biggest party in Surat municipal polls by securing 28 percent vote share.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that his party gained national party status in just 10 years and thanked the people of Gujarat for it.

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"The AAP managed to bag the status of a national party in just 10 years. That's the pace of growth of this party. We got around 35 lakh votes in Gujarat. All leaders worked hard and visited rural areas in Gujarat," he said.

The BJP registered a landslide victory in Gujarat as it won 156 seats in the 182-member Assembly. The Congress was a distant second with 17 seats and AAP won four seats.

First Published:Dec 8, 2022 4:55 PM IST