Kejriwal blames BJP; AAP wants fresh inquiry

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 19

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called for a “thorough audit, fresh investigation and independent and time-bound inquiry” in connection with the removal of voters' names since 2015 Delhi Assembly elections based on a duly authenticated list on a day when party national convener Arvind Kejriwal hoped the Election Commission of India (EC) would take action against those behind “illegal” deletion of voters in the capital.

The chief minister also claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party is losing ground in the race of 2019 Lok Sabha elections accusing it of indulging in “rigging” of elections.

“BJP is losing. This seems to be the last resort of BJP. They have got lakhs of names deleted from voter lists. Hope EC wud take immediate action (sic),” tweeted Kejriwal.

The AAP sought an urgent intervention by the EC into the recent investigation by election officers’ teams in matter of deletion of voters’ names alleging “grave discrepancies”.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), AAP’s national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said, “The officers conducting the survey appear to have been provided a list of deleted voters that was wholly different from the list published on the website of the EC. The list which formed the basis of this survey was in complete variance with the one on the website.… even the list available on the EC’s  website shows grave discrepancies against the initial ground investigation carried out by the AAP’s booth level agents. It was noted that names of a large number of people who are living in the area as permanent residents for multiple generations were missing from the electoral roll,” Chadha wrote to the CEC.

Noting that during the survey, several constituents revealed that their names had been deleted, Chadha stated, “Your urgent intervention is sought in respect of this farce of an exercise where the officers conducting the survey have not been furnished with a complete, accurate, authentic and comprehensive list of deleted voters. Even more shocking is the aspect of lack of any complete record of deleted voters.”

Further, he said that such a large-scale deletion of voters from electoral roll in the absence of any of pre-deletion inquiry, verification or hearing is a clear indication of a concentrated effort towards rigging the polls and against the fabric of democracy.