BJP-JD(S) alliance will win all 28 seats in Lok Sabha elections next year: HD Kumaraswamy
Bengaluru: The Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka with its new ally Janata Dal (Secular) on Sunday resolved to win all the 28 seats in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, which is about six months away.
In a further display of bonhomie, the BJP state president B Y Vijayendra on Sunday called on former chief minister and JD(S) second-in-command H D Kumaraswamy at his Bidadi farm here and held talks.
Later, the two leaders told reporters after the meeting that they discussed various issues including the Lok Sabha elections, the alliance between the two parties and the current political development in the state.
''In the interests of the country, we have discussed that Narendra Modi should be the Prime Minister for the next term as well. Seat sharing will be discussed at the High Command level. Our alliance will win 28 out of 28 seats in the state,'' Kumaraswamy said.
Recalling the coalition government of the BJP and the JD(S) in 2006, the JD(S) state chief said he and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had done excellent work together. It is the wish of the people of the state that it should be repeated, he added.
''Vijayendra, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, me along with all the leaders of both the parties will work hard to bring back the good days of 2006-07,'' said the former Chief Minister.
Both Vijayendra and Nikhil Kumaraswamy will tour the state like brothers, the JD(S) leader said, adding that both the parties will strive together and highlight the mistakes of the ruling party with documentary evidence.
Speaking on the occasion, Vijayendra said there will not be a single Congress member from Karnataka in the Lok Sabha as the coalition will win all the 28 seats.
''We discussed teaching a lesson to the corrupt Congress government,'' Vijayendra said.
He also said the seniors will discuss seat-sharing in Delhi.
Vijayendra, who is a Shikaripur MLA and Yediyurappa's son, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda and Kumarswamy have already discussed in Delhi.
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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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