CM again raises issue of ‘deletion’ of voter names, BJP hits back

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday again accused the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of having a role in the alleged “deletion of 30 lakh voters” ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP said the Delhi CM was “misleading the public with false information”.

The allegation comes a day after Kejriwal was involved in a Twitter spar with some BJP leaders over the alleged deletion of four lakh voters from trader community from electoral rolls.

“You are lucky we found the list of 30 lakh voters whose names have been deleted before the elections. People in Telangana found on the day of elections on Saturday that 21 lakh names were missing,” Kejriwal said while addressing a gathering after inaugurating development work in unauthorised colonies in Shalimar Bagh. The CM was referring to reports which alleged that names of 21 lakh voters were found missing in Telangana during the assembly elections this week.

Kejriwal said the names of voters deleted in Delhi included 15 lakh Purvanchalis — people from eastern UP and Bihar who comprise a sizeable population of voters in the capital. “The BJP does not like people from Purvanchal... They know they (Purvanchalis) will not vote for them in 2019. That is why they deleted their names,” he said.

In reply, the BJP said Kejriwal was “misleading the public by giving false information”. BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, leader of the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, said, “First, it was traders’ community and now Purvanchal. According to the CM, the numbers run into lakhs. He is levelling false, baseless allegations. He should produce the list of voters whose names have been deleted,” said Gupta.

The two parties have been at loggerheads with the AAP alleging that Election Commission had “struck of names of voters at the behest of BJP”.

The issue even rocked the Delhi Assembly’s special session last month, with AAP lawmakers passing a resolution asking Delhi’s chief electoral office to probe the alleged discrepancies.

Both the BJP and the poll panel have rejected claims.

THE BJP SAID KEJRIWAL WAS ‘MISLEADING THE PUBLIC BY GIVING FALSE INFORMATION