AAP delegation meets top EC officers, alleges poll staff ‘surrendered’ to BJP

Flagging “serious electoral irregularities” in the New Delhi Assembly constituency, a high-level delegation of the Aam Aadmi Party -- Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Delhi CM Atishi and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh -- on Thursday met top Election Commission officials. They alleged that local poll officials had completely “surrendered” to the BJP.

Manipulation continues

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There is clear indication that fake voters are being registered, likely brought in from neighboring states like UP and Bihar. If such manipulation continues, the election will not be fair but merely a farce. — Arvind Kejriwal, AAP Convener

The former chief minister also demanded a raid at the house of his rival candidate Parvesh Verma, alleging that the latter was openly conducting job camps, distributing money, and handing out eyeglasses at health camps.

"Our main concerns were irregularities in voter deletions, suspicious additions to the voter list, violation of election model code of conduct by BJP candidate Parvesh Verma and BJP’ s collusion with local election officials," Kejriwal said while addressing mediapersons outside the EC office. AAP leaders alleged that in a period of 22 days from December 15 to January 8, as many as 5,500 votes were removed in the New Delhi constituency . "This constituency has a total of around one lakh voters, meaning 5.5% of votes have been removed in just over three weeks. This level of deletion wasn’t observed before, clearly indicating irregularities. These applications for deletions are fraudulent," Kejriwal said.

He said that when the lower-level election officials held hearings on these cases and summoned the people whose names were listed for deletion, all those who appeared denied having submitted such applications, the AAP convener stated.

Kejriwal also highlighted a sudden and suspicious addition of 13,000 people in the voter list during the same period. "This is a clear indication that fake voters are being registered, likely brought in from neighboring states like UP and Bihar. If such manipulation continues, the election will not be fair but merely a farce," he said.

The party said that the EC had assured them that "such practices will not be allowed" and strict action would be taken "wherever required".

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has taken cognisance of Kejriwal’s complaint against Parvesh Verma and asked the chief electoral officer of Delhi to set up an inquiry and file an action–taken report.