Arvind Kejriwal, BJP spar over ‘deletion’ of voters’ names in Delhi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta engaged in a war of words on Twitter.

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta engaged in a war of words on Twitter on Saturday, accusing each another of lying over the issue of deletion of voters’ names from electoral roll in the national capital.

The blame game erupted with Gupta charging the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader with lying that names of 24 lakh voters had been deleted in Delhi in the past four years.

“Do not lie Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The 24 lakh votes have been deleted in last 10 years due to death, duplication, self-deletion through Form 7. Thirty lakh votes have been added during this period. It’s a normal process,” Gupta of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tweeted in Hindi.

Kejriwal hit back, saying, “Your Election Commission has given us list of 24 lakh votes deleted in four years. The dirty game of BJP has been exposed early that’s why you are so flustered. Will EC resign if I give you the list of those whose names have been deleted fraudulently.” The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi Saturday cautioned people against “misleading calls” claiming deletion of their names from electoral rolls, a day after a BJP delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner and alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been making such phone calls.

Terming the poll panel statement as a slap in the face of Kejriwal, Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said the Election Commission had informed all the parties, including Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, that by January 18, 2019 a total number of 9,88,925 voters have increased, but Kejriwal was not ready to accept it.

The poll panel statement came a day after a BJP delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner and alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had been making such phone calls.

The statement from the poll panel drew sharp reaction from AAP national convener and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who said the Election Commission “must not be allowed to become agent of a political party”.

After the poll panel came out with the final voter list in January, the AAP has launched sustained attacks on the BJP alleging its hand behind the “deletion” of names of 30 lakh voters, particularly of Purvanchali, Muslims and Bania communities, since the assembly election in Delhi in 2015.

AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha asserted that Kejriwal is fighting with the Election Commission and he will get every voter’s name added to the electoral rolls that has been illegally deleted at the behest of the BJP.