Kharge, Muniyappa and Devegowda's lose inevitable: Yeddyurappa
Bengaluru, Apr 26: State BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa Friday predicted the defeat of top leaders of the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance, including former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, senior Congress leaders Veerappa Moily and Mallikarjun Kharge in the Lok Sabha polls.
Signalling possible political instability in the state after the Lok Sabha poll results, the former Chief Minister said differences between Congress and JD(S) would increase after the results are out on May 23.
"I have been saying this with confidence that we will win more than 300 seats across the country this time.
InKarnataka, we will win at least 22 (out of 28) Lok Sabha seats. I'm saying this with confidence," Yeddyurappa said.
Addressing party MLAs, MPs and leaders meeting in the backdrop of bypolls to Chincholi and Kundgol assembly seats on May 19, he said "the atmosphere is in our favour to an extent that Veerappa Moily has already lost against our candidate; in Kolar also K H Muniyappa will lose against our candidate Muniswamy."
"According to our calculations, Mallikarjun Kharge will lose against our candidate 100 per cent, and in Tumkur the situation is that you will not be surprised if Deve Gowda is defeated.
This is what we are hearing, I'm not saying this for the media or to satisfy you, this is based on information we have gathered," he added.
While JD(S) patriarch Gowda is pitted against BJP's Basavaraj in Tumkur, Congress leader and former chief Minister Moily is fighting a tough battle against BJP's Bachche Gowda in Chikkaballapur.
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is fighting Umesh Jadhav of BJP in Gulbarga, and in Kolarformer Union Minister K H Muniyappa of Congress is pitted against Muniswamy of the saffron party.
Claiming that stalwarts of the Congress-JD(S)coalition would face defeat in this election, Yeddyurappa said the internal rift between the partners has once again started, and after the poll results are out the situation would worsen.
"In such a situation, by-elections for Chincholi and Kundgol have also come, which we will have to win hundred per cent," he said, adding that names of candidates have been recommended to the party high command and would be finalised and announced by tomorrow.
The outcome of the by-polls, along with the Lok Sabha results, is crucial for the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance as it would have a bearing on the longevity of the coalition government, triggering the numbers game in the assembly.
The by-poll to Chincholi was necessitated as Umesh Jadhavquit as Congress MLA and joined BJP to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga, while Kundgol seat fell vacant following the death of MLA and Minister C S Shivalli.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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