Senior AAP leaders allege harassment of call centre employees hired by party

Senior AAP leaders Atishi and Raghav Chadha on Tuesday met Delhi Police officials to lodge their protest over alleged harassment of call centre employees who have been hired by them to inform people about voter deletion.

The Election Commission had asked Delhi Police to take "necessary action" against those making "misleading" phone calls to people about the city's electoral rolls, following which an FIR was registered.

A BJP delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner and alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party was making such phone calls.

The AAP leaders have been alleging that police have been harassing the call centre employees in the matter for which Atishi and Chadha met Delhi Police officials to lodge their protest over the matter.

Chadha, while addressing the media outside the police headquarters, alleged that "the BJP in the past four years has been trying to destroy the AAP".

A senior police official said they are probing the matter and are questioning the call centre employees to ascertain the nature of calls allegedly made by them to voters.

"The people who fund AAP are being harassed by authorities and they are being probed because they support AAP. The agency which AAP uses for ensuring fair elections is being harassed too. This is because BJP is scared about it," Chadha said.

Chadha, in a series of tweets, lashed out at Delhi Police and the BJP.

"BJP got more than 30 lakh votes deleted in Delhi and when Aam Aadmi Party started talking about this issue in the media the Election Commission removed this list from their website!," she said in a tweet.

"Aam Aadmi Party went door-to-door to check this list and found wrongful voter deletions on a very large scale. We then hired a call centre to inform voters about their names being deleted from voter list," she said.

Alleging that voter deletion is a strategy being used by the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Atishi said this is what happened in Telangana too.

"Voter deletion is a strategy that is used by the BJP in elections! This is exactly what happened in Telangana, where it was brought to light by badminton player Jwala Gutta, whose name was wrongfully deleted from voter list," she tweeted.

"The BJP is now worried that their strategy is being exposed! So they are now using Delhi Police to intimidate the call centres that have been hired by Aam Aadmi Party to inform voters about voter deletion. Call centres hired by Aam Aadmi Party are being harassed and intimidated by Delhi Police; they are being called everyday to the Crime Branch for questioning. They are now being taken for questioning to police headquarters," she alleged.

"Since BJP's strategy of voter deletion has been exposed, they are now trying to use Delhi Police to harass call centres! When Aam Aadmi Party is saying openly that we have hired the call centres to inform voters, then why are call centres being called for questioning?" Atishi said in another tweet.

"BJP knows that they are going to lose in the upcoming general elections, so now they are trying to intimidate call centres who are working with opposition party," she said.

"If BJP and Delhi Police think that anything illegal has been done, then why don't they question Aam Aadmi Party? Why are they trying to intimidate call centres working with Aam Aadmi Party? Is it so that call centres get scared of working with opposition parties," she said in another tweet.

Sanjay Singh, a senior AAP leader, has urged Delhi Police to take action against these police officials "harassing" the call centre employees.