The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of levelling “baseless” accusations against it in connection with alleged deletion of names of voters from the electoral rolls.
On its part, the AAP has alleged names of 30 lakh voters, including a large number of those belonging to the Baniya/ Vaish, Poorvanchali and Muslim communities, have been deleted on the assumption that these are anti-BJP.
‘Venomous politics’
Arguing that the AAP “feared defeat” in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and accusing it of spreading hatred among the people of Delhi through its “venomous politics of religion and casteism”, Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta questioned its “silence” on the topic during an all-party meeting on the issue held in August.
“At an all-party meeting at the Delhi CEC office, members of the AAP remained tight-lipped and did not raise any questions regarding deletion of of names of voters from the electoral roll,” Mr. Gupta told a press conference here.
“On the one hand they are claiming that 30 lakh names have been deleted but on the other, when the all-party meeting was held on the issue on August 31 at the Delhi CEC office with two AAP members — Pankaj Gupta and Dilip Pandey — in attendance, both remained tight-lipped and did not raise any questions on deletion of voters from the electoral roll,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
In fact, he said, 13,73,300 names between 2015 and 2018 had been added to the voters’ list. These include the names of around five lakh voters belonging to the Vaish community. Citing data and specifically speaking about Assembly seats like Burari and Patparganj reflecting a majority of the Poorvanchali community, Mr. Gupta said 43,431 voters in Burari and 21,787 names in Patparganj had been added to the electoral rolls.
“Assembly seats comprising a majority of the Vaish community have also seen an addition of voters in the electoral list... around 13,675 votes have been added. Similarly, seats where a majority of voters belong to the Muslim community, such as Okhla, have seen an addition to 35,368 votes, Seelampur around 17,069 votes and Mustafabad have seen an addition to 23,679 votes,” Mr. Gupta said.
Meanwhile, AAP leader Atishi alleged this was in line with the BJP’s “strategy” to ensure that communities expected to vote against them are prevented from doing so.
“This is the BJP’s tried-and-tested strategy. In Gujarat, they targeted Muslim voters. Now they are targeting Baniyas and Poorvanchalis,” she alleged.
‘Deleted names’
Ms. Atishi said Mr. Gupta and the BJP should “ask the EC to upload the list of deleted voters”, which she claimed was removed about 10 days ago, on its website so that the correct number of deleted voters can be gauged.