AAP claims names of anti-BJP voters have been deleted, says Election Commission acting at behest of saffron party.
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) party leaders Friday took to social media to claim the Election Commission had ‘confirmed’ that the names of 10 lakh Delhi voters had been deleted off voter lists.
The AAP leader went online minutes after a meeting with the Election Commission over the issue of “fraudulent deletions of voters IDs” in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“The CEC (chief election commissioner) in today’s meeting confirmed that more than 10 lakh votes have been deleted in Delhi. Our preliminary inquiry reveals anti-BJP votes deleted in large numbers,” tweeted AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chaddha. “Request all those who wish to defeat BJP to check their voter ID validity.”
Sources in the Commission, however, said the statement was “factually incorrect,” as the updation of voter lists was ongoing and hence there was no question of arriving at an exact number.
An EC official, on the condition of anonymity, said the commission only heard the complaints of AAP leaders and was considering initiating an inquiry into the matter.
The official said that, for instance, the EC was told that massive deletions had taken place in Chaddha’s constituency of South Delhi, following which it told the AAP spokesperson that a local officer could be deputed to look into the matter.
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‘EC acting at the behest of the BJP’
The AAP leaders, however, insist that the EC, acting at the behest of the ruling BJP, had made the voter deletions without following due process.
“We have given our submissions to the EC, and hope that the EC will punish those responsible for the mass deletions,” AAP leader Pankaj Gupta told ThePrint.
“But if they fail to take action, it does raise questions on the intentions of the commission,” he said.
Gupta also said the EC had agreed to re-verify the deletions upon receiving “some specific” information. “They want specific information about the constituencies in which deletions have taken place, so we will now be providing them that,” he said.
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Kejriwal had approached EC Thursday
AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had Thursday moved the EC alleging that the names of lakhs of voters had been deleted “with malafide intent”.
“A cursory perusal of the deleted names shows that most of these votes belong to either the Congress or AAP,” Kejriwal alleged in a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat. “Therefore, it is likely that some officers have done it at the instance of the BJP to prevent them from voting.”
Several opposition parties have accused the EC of being “a proxy” for the ruling BJP through deliberate EVM snags, fake voter IDs, and deletions of voter names.
“This does seem to be a part of a pattern as far as the actions of the EC are concerned… But since we have given them our submissions, we will wait to see what action they take,” Gupta said.