All recognised political parties in Delhi, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that has alleged a mass deletion of votes, have been slow to appoint booth level agents (BLAs) who are supposed to assist election officials in the revision of the electoral rolls, according to official data.
On Wednesday, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, Ranbir Singh, when asked about the AAP’s allegation of 30 lakh electors being struck off the rolls, said “political parties have not appointed all BLAs who will help in giving information about voters who have shifted or passed away in their areas”.
He added that the parties had been asked many times to appoint the BLAs. He said the final electoral roll would be published on January 18, while the election process for the Lok Sabha polls could start by first half of March.
With 13,816 polling stations, the parties are supposed to appoint at least one BLA for each. A handbook issued by the Election Commission for booth level officers (BLOs) says BLAs are supposed “to interact regularly” with BLOs. If parties have not appointed BLAs, no other person will be handed over the draft electoral roll for that part, the guidelines say.
“The BLAs will not receive claims and objection from public. They will only guide the public to file appropriate applications for inclusion, deletion, correction and transposition of entries in the roll,” the handbook reads.
According to data from the Office of the CEO, as of December 17, 2018, there were 6,830 BLAs appointed by seven recognised parties in Delhi. The Congress led the pack with 2,360, followed by the BJP with 2,350 and the AAP with 1,127.
AAP responds
When asked for comment, AAP leader and its South Delhi Lok Sabha in-charge Raghav Chadha said the party was in the process of appointing BLAs.
“BLAs are usually appointed closer to the elections. The process of the deletion of votes is a long-drawn one and is supposed to include surveys, issuing of notice and collection of proper evidence before striking a name off. We have demonstrated the fact that people of certain communities have been targeted and votes have been struck off incorrectly,” said Mr. Chadha.
The AAP has alleged that Muslim, Poorvanchali and Baniya voters have been targeted as they may be inclined to vote for it, instead of the BJP.
Congress responds
Delhi Congress leader Chattar Singh said the party had handed in a list of 9,000 BLAs to the CEO’s office and these would be reflected in the list of appointed BLAs soon.
“Our BLAs on the ground have found that people whose names have been deleted have shifted their residence. They have not found any cases of any community being targeted or mass deletion. How can the AAP claim so, when they don’t even have their BLAs in place,” asked Mr. Singh.
BJP responds
The BJP claimed that it had already put in place all its BLAs. BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said: “The BJP has appointed BLA-2 [the official designation for BLAs] for all the booths in Delhi; all of them were in fact present at a recent booth-level programme where BJP national president Amit Shah addressed them.”
He added that the reason for the appointment of all the BJP’s BLAs not reflecting in the CEO’s data “most plausibly, is that there seems to be some delay in the paper work being submitted.”
(With inputs from Jatin Anand)