AAP Meets EC, Raises Concerns Over Voter Irregularities In New Delhi Assembly Seat
Aam Aadmi Party delegation led by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday met the Election Commission over their ‘concerns’ regarding alleged irregularities in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly elections.
The party highlighted a significant surge in voter registrations and deletions on the seat while alleging a “voter fraud” taking place at a large scale.
Former Delhi CM Kejriwal said that a total of 5,500 votes were registered in 22 days. He also claimed that out of 89 people who had applied for deletion of 5500 names from the voter list, 18 denied submitting the request.
“The Chief Election Commissioner is out, but we met with the other two commissioners. One of the issues we raised was that in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly, between December 15 and January 7, a total of 5,500 votes were registered in 22 days. The total votes in this assembly are 1,00,000. This means that 5.5 per cent of the votes were registered in the last 22 days, which clearly indicates some irregularities. There are issues with these applications,” Kejriwal told reporters after meeting the Election Commissioners, here on Thursday.
“When the lower officials investigated, the individuals whose names appeared on these applications denied having submitted any request to cut votes. 89 people had applied for 5,500 votes, and 18 of them came to the Election Commission and denied submitting any applications. This means there is a large-scale election fraud happening,” he added.
The AAP Chief also alleged that from December 15 to January 8,13,000 new voter applications were received.
He also lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly targeting BJP candidate Parvesh Verma, accusing him of distributing money. He also raised objections against health camps and job fairs announced by the BJP.
Kejriwal said that the Election Commission assured them that “strict action” will be taken against any “corrupt practices”.
“Where did all these people come from in just 15 days? These people are coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to get fake votes registered. Thirdly, we pointed out that Parvesh Verma in the New Delhi seat is openly distributing money, and health camps are being held with glasses being distributed. He announced on January 15 that job fairs will be held. All of this falls under corrupt practices according to the Election Commission’s rules. Parvesh Verma should be barred from contesting the election,” he said.
“We are happy that the Election Commission assured us that these corrupt practices will not be allowed to happen, and strict actions will be taken. We also requested that the local EROs (Election Registration Officers) be removed from their positions. Yesterday, we submitted an application regarding this, but no action was taken,” he added.
On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi wrote another letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, raising the issue of adding and deleting the names of voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency and seeking an immediate meeting on the issue.
CM Atishi previously wrote another letter to the CEC regarding the same issue on January 5.
The Delhi assembly polls will be held in a single phase on February 5 and the counting of votes will take place on February 8.
AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections and BJP secured eight seats. (ANI)
