EC designates Jana Sena as ‘recognised regional political party’
The ECI communicated this to the Jana Sena Party through a letter on Tuesday and also reserved “glass tumbler” as the permanent official election symbol.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has granted recognised political party status to the Jana Sena Party headed by popular Tollywood actor and Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan, the party announced on its social media platform X on Wednesday.

The ECI communicated this to the Jana Sena Party through a letter on Tuesday and also reserved “glass tumbler” as the permanent official election symbol of the party.
“Jana Sena emerged as a recognized regional political party. The Election Commission has issued orders recognizing the glass symbol as a permanent symbol of the Jana Sena Party, which created history with the historic victory achieved in the last elections. The struggle (of) Pawan Kalyan for over a decade culminated in the Jana Sena Party being acknowledged as a recognized political party,” the party said in a statement posted on X.
In the last general elections held in Andhra Pradesh in May 2024, the Jana Sena Party achieved 100% strike rate by winning all the 21 assembly seats allotted to it as part of the alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 175-member state assembly. It also won both the Lok Sabha seats allotted to it out of 25 MP seats from the state.
This is for the first time that Jana Sena Party got the recognition as a state political party since its inception in March 2014. Hitherto, it had only been a registered political party in Andhra Pradesh.
In 2014 general elections, the Jana Sena party did not contest the elections, but supported the TDP and the BJP. However, it fought the general elections in 2019 in alliance with the CPI, CPI (M) and Bahujan Samaj Party, but faced a huge electoral debacle.
It won only one assembly seat with Pawan Kalyan being defeated in both the seats – Bhimavaram and Gajuwaka – that he had contested. The lone Jana Sena MLA, R Varaprasad, later defected to the YSR Congress party. The Jana Sena Party also drew a blank in the Lok Sabha elections.
The ECI acknowledges a political party as a recognised party based on the criteria laid out in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. As per this order, a political party gets recognition as a state party, if it gets a minimum 6% vote share in the last assembly election and at least two MLAs; or at least one MP from that state. Otherwise, it must have at least 8% of the total valid votes cast in the latest assembly or general elections from that state.
In the 2019 elections, the Jana Sena Party got only 5.53% of vote share and just one MLA seat. Hence, it failed to get the ECI recognition. However, in 2024, the party’s strength drastically increased – it won 6.87% of vote share and 21 assembly seats. Hence, the ECI acknowledged it as a recognised state party.
