Arvind Kejriwal alleged that these names have been deleted "fraudulently".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the BJP engaged in a war of words over the "deletion of voters'' from the electoral rolls in the national capital after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief tweeted that the Election Commission reportedly gave a list of 24 lakh deleted names. The AAP leader claimed that the Delhi government's enquiry into some of the deletions found them to be wrong.
Citing Telangana's example where shuttler Jwala Gutta and others found their names missing from the voters' lists at the booths during the assembly election in December, Mr Kejriwal warned that his party won't allow a repeat of Telangana in Delhi.
"22 lakh names wrongly deleted in Telengana, Didn't EC aplogise? Why were Jwala Gutta n her family names missing at polling centre tho they existed on EC website?" he tweeted.
Telangana's election body chief had in December admitted that the names of many people were missing from the voters' list at booths in various parts of the state. Many people who have been voting for years, complained they could not find their names at their regular polling station.
"It seems BJP is doing it all over the country in active collusion wid Election Commission," Mr Kejriwal had then tweeted.
Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, however, accused Mr Kejriwal of lying and clarified that the names of 24 lakh voters were deleted in Delhi over a period of 10 years, not four as being claimed.
"Do not lie Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The 24 lakh votes have been deleted in last 10 years due to death, duplication, self-deletion through Form 7. Thirty lakh votes have been added during this period. It's a normal process," the BJP leader tweeted.
The AAP chief hit back saying, "Your Election Commission has given us list of 24 lakh votes deleted in four years. The dirty game of BJP has been exposed early that's why you are flustered. Will EC resign if I give you the list of those whose names have been deleted fraudulently."
The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi on Saturday cautioned people against "misleading calls" claiming deletion of their names from electoral rolls, a day after a BJP delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner and alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been making such phone calls.
The development drew a sharp reaction from Arvind Kejriwal, who said the Election Commission "must not be allowed to become agent of a political party".
Terming the poll panel statement as a slap in the face of Kejriwal, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said the Election Commission had informed all the parties, including Arvind Kejriwal's AAP, that by January 18, 2019 a total number of 9,88,925 voters have increased, but Mr Kejriwal was not ready to accept it, reported news agency PTI.
After the poll panel came out with the final voter list in January, the AAP has been alleging that the BJP was behind the "deletion" of names of 30 lakh voters, particularly of Purvanchali, Muslims and Bania communities, since the assembly election in Delhi in 2015.
AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said that Arvind Kejriwal is fighting with the Election Commission and he will get every voter's name added to the electoral rolls that has been illegally deleted at the behest of the BJP.