Delhi polls: Kejriwal accuses BJP of 'trying to cut votes' from voter list

Aam Aadmi Party National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused Bharatiya Janata Party of 'trying to cut votes' from the voter lists ahead of the Delhi Assembly election.

Kejriwal alleged that the BJP had submitted an application to Election Commission of India to cut votes of 11,000 people, citing that either these people have shifted or passed away. Kejriwal added that AAP randomly checked 500 people fom the list and found that 372 people are still living there.

"BJP has given application to cut votes in their letterhead. They had already given applications to cut votes of 11,000 people, in the last 1-1.5 months and that process is underway. In applications, it is said that these 11,018 people have either shifted or passed away. For us, to check all these 11,000 applications so we checked 500 randomly. Among these 500, 372 were found to be staying there only (at their address). They haven't shifted anywhere,"

Kejriwal claimed that most of the voters in the list are AAP voters.

"75 percent of their list is troublesome. When we inquired, maximum of these voters turned out to be AAP voters. If you get 6% of votes cut from one assembly constituency then what is the point of holding elections?" Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal emphasised that casting votes is fundamental rights of citizens which BJP and ECI is attempting to 'snatch away' from people.

"This is a threat to democracy, people's votes are being cut. It is the fundamental right of the people to cast their vote and choose their government but BJP and Election Commission are snatching this right of the people," Kejriwal said.

The Assembly polls in Delhi are expected to be held in early 2025. AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections and BJP secured eighth seats.