AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused the BJP of orchestrating large-scale deletions of voters' names from the electoral rolls in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections.
Kejriwal claimed that BJP leaders had submitted applications to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to remove thousands of voter names from constituencies like Shahdara, Janakpuri, and Laxmi Nagar.
Citing the example of Shahdara, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP had applied to delete 11,018 voter names from the constituency.
"When we randomly checked 500 of these names, we found that 75 percent of the people are still residing at the listed addresses. This is nothing but an attempt to manipulate the electoral process," he said.
The AAP leader connected the alleged deletions to the saffron party's narrow victory in Shahdara during the 2020 Assembly elections, where AAP won by a margin of just 5,294 votes.
He argued that removing 11,000 voters -- about 6 per cent of the total electorate in the constituency -- could significantly affect the outcome.
Meanwhile, the district magistrate of Shahdara refuted Kejriwal's claims in a post on X, stating, "Only 494 Form 7 (deletion application) requests have been received in the Shahdara constituency since October 29, 2024. The claim of 11,018 deletion requests is factually incorrect." To support his allegations, Kejriwal presented several individuals at the press conference, whose names he claimed were targeted for deletion.
"These voters are alive and continue to live at the same addresses listed on the voter rolls. For instance, Upendra Kumar resides at A-334, Uma Devi at B-8 Ambedkar Nagar, and Sunil Kumar at B-326," he said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva dismissed Kejriwal's allegations as "baseless" and accused AAP of shielding fraudulent voters.
"Rohingyas and Bangladeshis are being caught, and Kejriwal is panicking because this vote bank, funded by money he allegedly receives from foreign sources, is being exposed," Sachdeva said.
"The greatest strength of Indian democracy is free speech, but the baseless comments made against constitutional institutions need to be examined." Kejriwal also accused the ECI of "secretly processing deletion requests without transparency." He called for all deletion applications to be published on the ECI website and demanded a halt to deletions initiated after October 18.
There was no immediate response from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer regarding the allegations.
Terming the voter deletions a "conspiracy to disenfranchise citizens," Kejriwal said, "The BJP knows it is losing the elections, which is why it is resorting to such unfair tactics." He warned of legal action against officials involved in any irregularities.
The Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for February, are crucial for AAP, which is seeking a third consecutive term after securing a landslide victory in 2020, winning 62 out of 70 seats.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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