EC says names of 10L voters deleted: CM
WAR OF WORDS Poll panel says Kejriwal’s claim ‘factually incorrect’
NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the Election Commission of India (ECI) confirmed to him, during a meeting, that the names of 10 lakh voters had been struck off the electoral rolls in the national Capital since the last assembly elections.
While confirming the meeting, the poll panel, however, termed Delhi chief minister’s “10 lakh” claim “factually incorrect”. ECI officials said the commission had only agreed to enquire into the allegations of deletion of names at two places.
“The election commission (chief election commissioner and two election commissioners) told us that names of at least 10 lakh voters have been deleted while 13 lakh names have been added to the voters’ list since the last assembly election on a routine basis,” Kejriwal said, after he led a delegation of party leaders, including Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, to the commission office.
Kejriwal had on Thursday written a letter to the election commission, wherein he alleged that prescribed procedure for deletion of names was not been followed in almost all cases raising suspicion about motives.
He had called the exercise a “huge scam” with grave implica- tions on democracy.
The party had earlier alleged that names of one lakh voters have been struck off illegally from the voters’ list in South Delhi parliamentary constituency allegedly “at the instance of BJP”.
Soon after t he meeting, party’s national spokesperson and South Delhi in-charge, Raghav Chadha, also tweeted about “CEC confirming” deletion of ten lakh voters, a charge contested by ECI spokesperson Sheypali Sharan.
“Factually incorrect...eci did not confirm that more than 10 lac “votes” have been deleted’(sic),” Sharan tweeted. She said the poll panel had agreed to “enquire specifically into deletion allegations at Lal Quan and Tughlaqabad in South Delhi” since the AAP delegation has insisted.
“Updation of voters’ list is an ongoing process, the next list would be published on January 4, 2019,” she said, adding, “We heard them and will respond to the demands.”
Chadha, who was part of the delegation, however, stood by his “10 lakh” claim. “Chief election commissioner OP Rawat accepted that names of more than 10 lakh voters have been deleted,” he said.
In the evening, Kejriwal retweeted Chadha’s tweet and wrote, “Shocking how EC cud lie so blatantly. CEC himself said that 10 lac votes deleted and 13 lac added since last Del assembly elections. Strange why EC shud lie. Let EC put updated list of all deletions on its website? People wud know no of deletions n cud chk their own name also (sic).”
Later in the evening, Kejriwal shot off a letter to chief election commissioner OP Rawat, wherein he, once again, wrote about the “10 lakh” voters whose names have been deleted.
After Friday’s meeting, Kejriwal once again accused the BJP of deleting the names of voters, who, according to him, are either Congress or AAP supporters.
“The BJP has realised that they will face a defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. That is why they are resorting to illegal means like tampering voters’ list or EVM machines,” Kejriwal said.
Kejriwal also said that the election commission had accepted his demand of putting up the list of deleted names on its website. He said the commission will also do a spot check at Tughlaqabad and Lal Quan to verify how many names have been deleted without following due procedure. “I have also demanded action against lowrung officials found guilty,” he said.
On Thursday, BJP Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari had termed the allegations put forward by the AAP baseless.