New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal accused BJP on Friday of orchestrating large-scale deletions of voters’ names from the electoral rolls in the runup to Delhi assembly elections. He claimed that BJP functionaries had submitted applications to the Election Commission of India to remove thousands of voter names from constituencies like Shahdara, Janakpuri and Laxmi Nagar.
Citing the example of Shahdara, Kejriwal claimed BJP wanted the deletion of 11,018 voter names from the constituency. “We randomly checked 500 of the names and found 75% of the people still residing in the listed addresses. This shows it is nothing but an attempt to manipulate the electoral process,” he said.
The former CM connected the alleged deletion of name to the close result in Shahdara in the 2020 assembly polls, which AAP won by a margin of just 5,294 votes. He argued that removing 11,000 voters — around 6% of the electorate — could significantly affect the outcome.
Meanwhile, the district magistrate of Shahdara refuted Kejriwal’s claims in a post on X, stating, “Only 494 Form 7 (deletion application) requests have been received in the Shahdara constituency since Oct 29. The claim of 11,018 deletion requests is factually incorrect.”
AAP countered that the DM’s claim was misleading. “With full responsibility, we categorically state that BJP’s BLA 1 (booth level agent 1) submitted a list of 11,0018 voters to be deleted from the voter list in Oct-Nov,” the party insisted. This bulk deletion application filed by BJP’s office bearer was duly accepted and acknowledged by the assistant electoral registration officer (AERO), it said.
The party claimed that after receiving the openly mala fide request, ERO (electoral registration officer) initiated the process of deletion by issuing a letter dated Nov 22, to its AERO and BLOs, asking them to commence the process of verification and subsequent deletion.
At the press conference, Kejriwal presented several individuals whose names he claimed were targeted for deletion. “These voters are alive and continue to live in the same addresses listed on the voter rolls. Here is Upendra Kumar, who resides at A-334, Uma Devi at B-8 Ambedkar Nagar and Sunil Kumar at B-326,” he pointed out. Backing him, Sanjeet Ravidas said, “I have been living there in Ambedkar Camp for two decades and am surprised that my name is not on the list despite having voted in every election for the past years. I own the jhuggi in which we live.”
Terming the voter deletions a “conspiracy to disenfranchise citizens,” Kejriwal added, “BJP knows it is losing the coming elections. That is why it is resorting to such unfair tactics.” He warned of legal action against officials involved in any irregularities.
