CM: BJP LOSING IN ’19, DELETING VOTERS’ NAMES AS LAST RESORT

NEWDELHI: AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday once again accused the BJP of getting names of voters in Delhi deleted from electoral rolls to avoid defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Delhi unit of the BJP, however, hit back at AAP, saying the party was expressing “hopelessness” by attacking election commission of India — an independent and fair agency.

The Delhi chief minister’s attack on the BJP came a day after his party’s national spokesperson, Raghav Chadha, termed the election commission’s inquiry into the alleged deletion of names from the voters’ list in Tughlaqabad “farcical”. On Monday, Chadha, who is also party’s south Delhi in-charge, also wrote a letter to chief election commissioner, OP Rawat, seeking his intervention over the “serious” matter.

“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),” Kejriwal said in a tweet while sharing Raghav’s letter.

Between November 16 and 18, the poll panel had conducted a drive Tughlaqabad assembly constituency to verify AAP’S allegations over deletion of names of “one lakh” voters south Delhi since the last assembly elections in 2015”.

“Terming the EC’S verification exercise farcical proves the AAP’S anarchic nature. The commission should ensure action against them,” BJP’S Delhi unit chief, Manoj Tiwari, said. He said AAP is attacking the poll panel since it was staring at a defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.

In Monday’s letter, Chadha demanded a fresh inquiry into the alleged deletion of names.

“Not just AAP, we sent the list to all other political parties. Also, if AAP has some list then nothing should stop them from sharing it with us,” said Naveen Gosain, SDM (election) of South district.