AAP alleges manipulation of electoral rolls in South Delhi LS seat, blames BJP

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday alleged "manipulation" of electoral rolls of South Delhi Lok Sabha seat with about one lakh names being deleted from the voters list in the constituency in past one year and that the BJP was behind it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rubbished the charge and hit back at the AAP, accusing it of resorting to "lies" to keep itself in the race for the 2019 polls.

"Our estimate is that about one lakh names of voters from South Delhi alone have been deleted in past six months to one year," said Raghav Chadha, AAP's incharge of South Delhi parliamentary seat.

He claimed to have statistics that showed around 7,500 names being deleted from electoral rolls of Chhattarpur, 12,000 from Bijwasan and 6,000 from Tughlaqabad assembly segments lying under South Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

An average of 10,000 voters names were removed from every assembly seat in the past one-and-a-half years alone. With 10 assembly segments in one parliamentary constituency, it comes to about 1,00,000 votes, he charged.

"The BJP now realises that it is going to face a massive defeat in 2019 elections. They are so baffled by this that they are getting names deleted from the electoral rolls," Chadha alleged.

Delhi BJP general secretary Ravinder Gupta alleged that the AAP was "lying" on the issue.

"They have nothing else except lies to offer. The fact is that they are worried about steep decline in their support base in Delhi," Gupta said.

The ruling AAP in Delhi, which has appointed in-charge for all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the city, has stepped up attack on the BJP ahead of the general elections next year.