HC calls for Bansuri Swaraj’s reply on Somnath Bharti’s plea challenging her election

    New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj on AAP leader Somnath Bharti's petition challenging her election to the Lok Sabha on grounds of alleged corrupt practices.
    Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice to Swaraj on the election petition and asked her to file a reply within 30 days.
    Meanwhile, the court deleted former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who contested the 2024 Sabha polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket but joined BJP after the results, from the array of parties on the ground that no cause of action was made out against him.
    “We can’t keep on issuing notice to parties where no cause of action is made out,” the judge observed orally.
    All three had contested from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat.
    While Bharti secured 3,74,815 votes, Swaraj polled 4,53,185.
    The petition, filed under Sections 80 and 81 of the Representation of the People Act, accused Swaraj, her election agent, and others of having engaged in corrupt practices.
    The plea also alleged that Anand contested the election on a BSP ticket to help Swaraj by cutting into AAP's vote share. He later joined the BJP on July 10, the plea said.
    It said Anand was a minister in the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and was active in campaigning for Bharti till April 9 before suddenly resigning from the party on April 10.
    On Wednesday, the court while deleting Anand from the list of parties said it was unable to appreciate the contention of the petitioner, who was represented by advocate K C Mittal, that Anand contested the election to cut into AAP votes as he secured a meagre 5269 votes.
    Even if all the votes he polled would have been added in favour of Bharti, the AAP leader would still have lost to Swaraj, the court said.
    Another respondent, the returning officer, opposed his impleadment in the matter and said he was neither a necessary party nor a proper party as per the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
    However, the petitioner’s counsel insisted that the presence of the returning officer was necessary for preserving records.
    The court listed the matter for August 20 for hearing on the limited point of determining the issue of release of EVMs and VVPATs during the pendency of the petition, as raised by the returning officer.
    The plea claimed that on the election day, the petitioner was shocked during his visits to polling booths across the constituency to see that Swaraj's polling agents had pamphlets displaying her ballot number, photo, election symbol and photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and were showing them to the voters and asking them to vote for ballot no.1.
    "...such an act certainly qualifies to be a corrupt practice. This was also reported to the respondent no. 3 (returning officer) but all in vain," it alleged.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)