Arvind Kejriwal claimed the Election Commission informed him that 10 lakh voters' names were deleted
A controversy erupted hours after a meeting between the AAP leadership and Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat Friday, with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blaming the election body of "lying" over the number of names deleted from the voters' list in the national capital.
Earlier, Mr Kejriwal accompanied by his deputy, Manish Sisodia, and party leader Raghav Chadha met Mr Rawat, alleging deletion of names of party supporters from the voters' list.
He also alleged that the BJP in "collusion" with lower level officers was responsible for it, and claimed that the Election Commission informed him that 10 lakh voters' names were deleted and 13 lakh added since last the Assembly election in Delhi in 2015.
The Election Commission termed this as "factually incorrect", saying no such thing was confirmed by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).
After the meeting, Mr Chadha tweeted, "CEC in today's meeting confirmed that more than 10 lac votes have been deleted in Delhi. Our preliminary inquiry reveals anti-BJP votes deleted in large numbers. Request all those who wish to defeat BJP to check their voter-id validity."
Replying to him, Election Commission spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan tweeted, "Factually incorrect....ECI did not 'confirm that more than 10 lac "votes" have been deleted'.. since AAP delegation insisted, ECI agreed 2 enquire specifically in2 Lal quan Tughlaqabad ERoll. Updation of voters list is an ongoing process, next list wld b published only on 4.1.19 (sic)."
Mr Kejriwal joined the blame game, alleging the EC of lying about the issue.
"Shocking how EC cud lie so blatantly. CEC himself said that 10 lac votes deleted and 13 lac added since last Del assembly elections. Strange why EC shud lie. Let EC put updated list of all deletions on its website? People wud know no of deletions n cud chk their own name also (sic)," the chief minister posted on his Twitter handle.
Mr Chadha suggested that if the meeting of the AAP delegation with the CEC was videotaped, it should be brought in the public domain for clarity.
In a letter to the CEC, Mr Kejriwal assured the AAP's "fullest cooperation" to the Election Commission in conducting free and fair elections.