The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj on AAP leader Somnath Bharti's petition challenging her election to the Lok Sabha on grounds of alleged corrupt practices.
A bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued notice to Swaraj and sought her reply within 30 days.
After Swaraj won the seat, the AAP leader moved a petition in the Delhi High Court under Sections 80 and 81 of the Representation of the People Act. He accused Swaraj and her election agents of engaging in corrupt practices to win the elections.
Somnath Bharti and Bansuri Swaraj contested from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 General Elections. Somnath Bharti secured 3,74,815 votes, wherea Swaraj got 4,53,185 votes.
Bharti's plea also alleged that Raaj Kumar Anand contested the election on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket to help BJP's Swaraj by cutting into AAP's vote share. After the elections results were declared, Anand joined BJP on July 10, Bharti's plea said.
It was Bharti's case that Anand, who was earlier a minister in the AAP government in Delhi and was active in campaigning for Bharti till April 9, suddenly resigned from the party on April 10. Raaj Kumar Anand was deleted today as a respondent in the case.
It is Bharti's case that on the day of election, when he visited the polling booths across the constituency of New Delhi, he was shocked to see that Swaraj's polling agents had pamphlets displaying her ballot number, photo, election symbol and photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The agents were allegedly showing the pamphlets to the voters and asking them to vote for ballot no.1.
Bharti has contended that such an act by the BJP leader and her agents certainly qualifies to be a corrupt practice. He has further alleged that the same was also reported by the returning officer.