The Delhi High Court on Monday adjourned till August 13 the petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti challenging the election of BJP’s Bansuri Swaraj as Member of Parliament from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on the grounds of “corrupt practices”.
Judge Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora He said the petition had multiple typographical errors and a corrected petition will have to be submitted.
“It is full of errors. There are too many errors. Please correct the petition first. I cannot issue a notice. I will simply adjourn it. Please file a corrected petition,” Judge Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora told Bharti’s lawyer.
The court noted that the reference to the defendants in the petition did not correlate with the defendants mentioned in the parties’ memorandum.
The hearing was adjourned as Bharti’s lawyer said a corrected plea would be filed in 10 days.
Bharti also contested but was declared a loser by the electoral officer on June 4. According to the declaration, Bharti got 3,74,815 votes while Swaraj got 4,53,185 votes.
The AAP leader has alleged that Raaj Kumar Anand, a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, was in fact set up by the BJP to help Swaraj win against Bharti.
He claimed that Anand was a minister in the AAP government in the national capital and had actively campaigned for him till April 9, but suddenly quit the party on April 10.
“He resigned from his ministry due to misuse of agencies like ED/CBI/IT against him by respondent No. 3 (the Returning Officer) and her party,” the election petition states.
She adds that on the day of the election, Bharti was shocked to see Swaraj agents carrying pamphlets with her ballot number, photo, election symbol and photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and showing them to voters, asking them to vote for her. According to Bharti, such an act qualifies as a corrupt practice.
“Many people noticed that some BJP workers were distributing money and materials like Saaris and Suits to some residents of the locality. They were going door to door and verifying the house number, voters residing in that house with the electoral rolls they were carrying. These people, after ensuring that there were voters in each house, would mark the names in the electoral rolls,” the statement read.
He adds that the entire BJP election campaign, and especially his own, was religious in nature and votes were sought on prohibited religious grounds.
“The speeches of Respondent No. 1 reveal that she used language that divided voters based on their religion,” he added.
Bharti has sought disqualification of Swaraj from contesting any election, whether to the state assembly or Parliament, for a period of six years as per law.
Title: Somnath Bharti vs. Bansuri Swaraj and Others
