BJP names Pradhan as poll in-charge for Bihar, Bhupender Yadav for Bengal
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Thursday named Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav, both key OBC faces and most seasoned poll managers of the party, as its in-charge for the Assembly elections in Bihar and Bengal, respectively.
Making important appointments for three poll-bound states, including for next year, the BJP named Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, one of its vice-presidents, its in-charge for the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu where it is a junior partner to the AIADMK.
The Bihar elections are expected in November, followed by West Bengal and Tamil Nadu which are likely to go to polls in March-April 2026.
A BJP statement said Union minister C R Paatil, who heads the party's Gujarat unit and is considered a capable organisation hand, and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya have been named co-incharges for the Bihar polls.
Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb is the co-incharge for West Bengal, while Union minister Murlidhar Mohol is the co-incharge for Tamil Nadu, it said.
Both Pradhan and Yadav come from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and are among the most experienced poll managers of the BJP.
Maurya also belongs to an OBC caste, while Deb is a Bengali, an aspect which can be politically helpful for the party in the states assigned to them.
Pradhan was the in-charge for Haryana elections, while Yadav helmed a similar role for Maharashtra polls, both held in 2024, with the BJP pulling off wins of a stunning scale in the two states.
Pradhan's formal appointment for the Bihar polls came very close to the elections, though he had been involved in the state's affairs.
He was the party's co-incharge for the 2010 Bihar polls, when the BJP-JD(U) alliance scored its most emphatic victory.
He was also the in-charge in for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka, while Yadav oversaw polls in Bihar and Gujarat, among others, in the past.
With the BJP's national leadership plays a central role in shaping the party's campaign for Assembly polls, election in-charges play a critical part as their bridge with state leaders and implementing the party's strategies on the ground. The co-incharges assist them in implementing the agenda.
While the BJP is eying to retain power with its main ally Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, it hopes to breach Trinamool Congress' citadel of West Bengal, where it has emerged as the main challenger to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will complete 15 years at the helm by the next elections.
The OBC plank is especially resonant in Bihar where the community has been the dominant political force for decades, with the extremely backward classes, a subset of more deprived castes, along with a section of Scheduled Castes seen to be holding the balance of power.
Pradhan's immediate challenge will be to ensure a smooth seat-sharing arrangement among the BJP's allies, some of whom have been seeking a much larger share than it is willing to part with.
Both the BJP and the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are expected to contest almost an equal number of seats in the elections to the 243-member Assembly, though the other allies such as Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Jitam Ram Manjhi too have been vocal in airing their demands.
Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha is another ally.
In Tamil Nadu, the BJP has remained a marginal player, trying to organise a strong alliance headed by the AIADMK to take on the ruling DMK.
Panda was the party's poll in-charge for Delhi polls this year, when the BJP returned to power in the Union territory after more than 25 years.
Alongside West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, Assembly polls will also be held in Kerala, Assam and Puducherry next year.
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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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