AAP alleges BJP, EC 'conspiracy' behind vote deletion in Delhi polls; BJP slams it for SIR 'phobia'
New Delhi (PTI): The AAP on Friday alleged that the Election Commission did not furnish information on its complaints of deletion of large number of votes of party supporters in Delhi Assembly polls held earlier this year, a charge rubbished by the polls panel.
Multiple letters written by former Delhi chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi, as well as RTI queries over deletion of votes, remained unanswered by the EC, AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed in a press conference.
The EC in a post on X shared a copy of its reply to AAP over vote deletion and said, "With reference to the PC held by Saurabh Bhardwaj today, it is stated that the ECI sent a detailed reply of 76 pages consisting of seven annexures, including reports of CEO/DEO, on 13.01.2025 to Ms Atishi, the then CM of Delhi."
In another post, the poll body said Atishi sent a letter dated January 5, 2025, to the ECI in a matter related to addition and deletion in electoral rolls of 40 New Delhi Assembly constituency segments.
Another letter from her was received on January 9 on the same issue, it said.
A defiant Bharadwaj in a post on X sought a copy of the FIR for "impersonation, fraud" for illegally trying to delete names of valid voters and manipulating the electoral process.
He alleged that an "organised syndicate hijacked" free and fair elections.
"If you are waiting for an affidavit, I am ready to sign the affidavit and submit. We are not scared of frivolous prosecution by government," he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that ever since the chief electoral officer of Delhi announced a special intensive revision (SIR) of the city's electoral rolls, the AAP leaders have developed a "phobia".
"The AAP leaders fear that the fake voters nurtured and converted into a core vote bank by previous governments in Delhi will now be exposed. The BJP forcefully raised the issue of bogus voters during the Assembly elections, and the outcome of that effort is visible to all," Sachdeva said.
In the press conference, Bharadwaj alleged that the EC is "openly helping" the BJP by targeting the opposition leaders on social media while ignoring "vote fraud".
"People stand in queues believing their votes form governments but it's the BJP and the EC that are forming governments together," Bharadwaj alleged.
The BJP ended AAP's political dominance in Delhi, winning 48 of the 70 Assembly seats in the city to form the government in February this year.
Prominent AAP faces, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Bharadwaj himself, lost their seats.
Sachdeva, meanwhile, challenged Bharadwaj and AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, to file a formal complaint with the Election Commission along with an affidavit if they thought their allegations carried any weight.
"If you believe they were your voters, you should have ensured their names were on the electoral rolls," he said.
Bharadwaj alleged that the BJP "conspired" for deletion of thousands of votes belonging to AAP supporters.
"During the summary revision of rolls at the end of October 2024, the voter list in Kejriwal’s New Delhi constituency dramatically reduced. There were 1.48 lakh voters in the constituency when Assembly polls were held in 2020. However, in the Assembly polls held in February this year, the number of voters went down by 42,000," Bharadwaj claimed.
“Despite dozens of complaints and RTI applications, the EC neither acted nor replied. Instead, it quietly closed the files on this massive conspiracy," Bharadwaj claimed, alleging "systematic and organised loot" of democracy.
Then-chief minister Atishi wrote to the chief election commissioner on February 5, regarding applications filed for deletion of votes in Kejriwal’s constituency.
As many as 6,166 deletion applications were filed, he claimed.
Before this, Atishi wrote a seven-page letter to the chief election commission demanding a probe into the matter.
Kejriwal himself wrote to the CEC on January 9 and again on January 8 and January 9 with all the particulars, asking what action was taken and whether a criminal investigation was launched, Bharadwaj said.
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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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