New Delhi : In a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Arvind Kejriwal, the former Delhi Chief Minister and national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Friday accused the BJP of orchestrating a “vote deletion scam” to manipulate the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal alleged that the BJP was working to get thousands of voters’ names struck off the electoral rolls, undermining the democratic process.
Kejriwal claimed that the BJP had filed applications with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the past month, seeking the removal of 11,000 voters across several constituencies, including Shahdara. He displayed documents during the press conference, which he said were signed by BJP officials and submitted to the ECI for the deletion of voters’ names.
According to Kejriwal, the BJP justified these deletions by claiming that the voters in question had either relocated or died. However, after cross-checking 500 of the 11,000 deletion applications, AAP discovered that 372 of these voters were still alive and living at the same addresses. “The BJP has applied to delete the names of 11,018 voters in Shahdara, but when we cross-checked 500 of them, 372 are still residing at the same addresses. Despite that, their names could be deleted,” Kejriwal said.
He further alleged that the majority of the voters targeted for deletion were AAP supporters. Shahdara constituency, he noted, has 1,86,362 voters, and in the previous election, AAP won by a margin of just 5,294 votes. Now, BJP wants to delete over 11,000 votes, raising questions about the fairness of the election.
Kejriwal also raised concerns about the Election Commission’s role, claiming that while the ECI’s official website listed only 487 applications for voter deletions, the BJP had submitted over 11,000. He suggested that the commission was processing these applications without transparency. “The Election Commission’s website shows only 487 applications for deletions, yet BJP has secretly filed over 11,000. This indicates a lack of transparency and raises doubts about the poll panel’s intentions,” he said.
The AAP leader accused both the BJP and the Election Commission of conspiring to deprive citizens of their fundamental right to vote. He also warned that such manipulation could raise questions about the integrity of past elections in states like Haryana and Maharashtra, where similar allegations of vote deletion had been raised.
Kejriwal concluded by claiming that the BJP was afraid of the people of Delhi, as they were disillusioned with the party’s handling of law and order in the city. He suggested that residents of Delhi were ready to send a strong message to the BJP in the upcoming elections.
