Delhi High Court Issues Notice To BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj On AAP Leader Somnath Bharti's Plea Challenging Her Election

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj in the plea moved by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti challenging her election from New Delhi Parliamentary Constituency in the Lok Sabha Polls, 2024, on the grounds of 'corrupt practices'.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed Swaraj to file a response to the plea within 30 days.

However, the court deleted from the array of parties Raaj Kumar Anand, a candidate from Bahujan Samaj Party, who, as alleged by Bharti, was set up by the BJP to help Swaraj win against Bharti.

Bharti had alleged that Anand was made to contest the election to split votes which would have gone in favour of the AAP MLA. He had claimed that Anand was a minister in the AAP Government in the national capital and was active in campaigning for him till April 09 but he suddenly resigned from the party on April 10.

The court said it was unable to appreciate Bharti's contention in view of the fact that in the results published after the elections, the number of votes in favour of Anand were 5269.

Justice Arora said that even if all of Anand's votes would have added in favour of Bharti, the AAP leader would have still lost to Swaraj.

The court said no cause of action was made out against Anand and thus, proceeded to delete him as a respondent.

One of the other respondents, the returning officer, was present in court and opposed his impleadment in the matter on the ground that he was neither necessary nor a proper party as per Section 82 of Representative of Peoples Act.

However, Senior Advocate KC Mittal appearing for Bharti said that the presence of the returning officer may be necessary for preserving records.

The returning officer stated that he would like to make submissions on the release of EVM and VVPATs during the pendency of the election petition. Accordingly, the court listed the matter for hearing on Tuesday on the limited point of determining the issue of release of EVM and VVPATs.

The election petition alleged that on the election day, Bharti was shocked to see that booth agents of Swaraj had her pamphlets displaying her ballot number, photo, election symbol and photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was showing the same to the voters, asking them to vote for her ballot. According to Bharti, such an act qualifies to be a corrupt practice.

“That there are many people who noticed some BJP workers distributing money and materials like Saaris and Suits to some residents of the locality. They were going from door-to-door and cross-checking the house number, voters residing in the said house with the electoral rolls that they were carrying. The said persons after satisfying themselves about the voters in each house were marking the names in the electoral rolls,” the plea reads.

It adds that BJP's entire election campaign, and especially her campaign, was religious in nature and vote was sought on the prohibited lines of religion.

“Speeches of the respondent no. 1 reveals that she spoke a language in her speeches which is to divide the voters on the line of religion,” it adds.

Bharti has sought Swaraj's disqualification from contesting any election, either to any state assembly or Parliament, for a period of six years as per law.

Title: Somnath Bharti v. Bansuri Swaraj and Others