Will CPI M lose national status, famous party symbol after Lok Sabha Elections 2024? Kerala leader AK Balan says...

A Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader reportedly warned this week that the party risks losing its famous Hammer, Sickle and Star symbol if it doesn't perform well in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

AK Balan, a CPI(M) central committee member and former Kerala minister was quoted by News Minute as saying, "It is time to make sincere efforts to protect the party symbol."

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“Otherwise, the party will be forced to fight the elections on symbols like the octopus or pangolin in future," he was quoted as saying while urging the supporters to work hard.

He reportedly said that if the “fails to secure a certain percentage of votes and win seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election", it will lose its national party status and even risk losing its election symbol.

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“The problem of losing the national status is that then the famed symbol of the CPM cannot be used, and then we will be at the mercy of the Election Commission who will allot a symbol," Balan was quoted by Mathrubhumi as saying.

AK Balan was speaking at the inauguration of the Kerala State Financial Enterprises Officers Union (KSFEOU) leadership workshop in Kozhikode, Kerala.

A political party is considered a national party only if any of the following conditions are fulfilled:

1. The candidates set up by the party in any four or more States in the last general elections to the Lok Sabha or to a state assembly must have secured not less than 6 per cent of the total valid votes polled in each of those States. The party must return at least four members to the House of the People in the general elections from any state of states.

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2. In the last general elections to the Lok Sabha, the party must have won at least 2 per cent of the total