NEW DELHI: AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission, alleging that BJP manipulated the electoral roll in New Delhi assembly constituency from where he is contesting the assembly elections in Feb.
Kejriwal alleged that people associated with BJP applied to add 13,000 voters to the electoral roll and sought to cancel 5,500 entries to “influence” the voting in its favour.
Former Delhi chief minister visited the EC office on Thursday to lodge the complaint along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, CM Atishi and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh. The delegation, led by Kejriwal, met the two election commissioners and officials to lodge their allegations over electoral irregularities in the constituency.
During the meeting, the delegation alleged that there was “large-scale voter deletions, suspicious additions to the voter list, and violations of the election model code of conduct by the BJP candidate in the constituency, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, in collusion with local election officials”. The AAP delegation also demanded action against the district election officer and the electoral registration officer for their alleged involvement in facilitating these violations, and urged the poll panel to ensure a free and fair election process.
“The chief election commissioner was out of town, but the two election commissioners were present. We want to thank them for agreeing to meet us on such short notice,” said Kejriwal. He said that in New Delhi assembly constituency, over 5,500 entries were filed for deletion from the voter list in just 22 days, between Dec 15 and Jan 7. During the same period, 13,000 voters were also registered in this small constituency with just one lakh voters, he added.
“Where did these 13,000 people come from in just 15 days? This is a clear indication that fake voters are being registered, most probably brought in from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We highlighted that this large-scale addition and deletion of votes amounting to 18.5% of the total voter list can completely distort the election process. If such manipulation continues, the election will not be fair but merely a farce,” Kejriwal claimed.
The party, in a letter, also alleged a violation of the model code of conduct by Verma. “In New Delhi assembly constituency, Parvesh Verma is openly conducting job camps, distributing money, and handing out eyeglasses at health camps,” Kejriwal claimed, adding that he has even announced a job fair on Jan 15. “These actions violate election conduct rules, and we demanded that Parvesh Verma be barred from contesting the elections.”
