The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Lok Sabha MP Bansuri Swaraj over a petition challenging her election from the New Delhi constituency.
The single-judge Bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora directed Swaraj to respond to the plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti, within 30 days.
The High Court deleted the then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Raaj Kumar Anand from the array of parties, noting that since he had polled only around 5,000 votes, his presence in the election did not make any difference to the results.
The single-judge Bench listed the matter for August 20 to hear the Returning Officer’s submissions on the issue of release of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs).
Bansuri Swaraj had contested the election on a BJP ticket and defeated Bharti, the candidate of the INDI alliance. BJP had won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
Bharti contended in his election petition that Swaraj and her election agent indulged in corrupt practices during the voting held in Delhi on May 25, 2024. The petitioner claimed that under Swaraj’s guidance, BJP workers distributed money and materials such as saris and suit-salwar to voters ahead of the polls.
On the day of voting, agents of Swaraj distributed pamphlets displaying her ballot number, photo, election symbol, and the photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleged the petition.
The plea further argued that Anand was set up by BJP to help Swaraj because he was earlier a minister of the AAP government in Delhi. It was also alleged that Anand resigned from the BSP under pressure from central agencies, and that after contesting the elections on a BSP ticket, he joined the BJP.