Delhi BJP welcomes SIR; alleges ‘fraudulent’ vote creation by AAP, Congress in national capital

The Delhi BJP on Thursday welcomed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the national capital’s voter list, a day after the Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) said preparations for the exercise have started.

No immediate response was available from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or the Congress over the BJP’s charge.

The BJP has always been committed to ensuring the accuracy of Delhi’s voter list and in the last two decades, the party has made every effort to cleanse it, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.

“The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress have been consistently involved in creating fake votes in Delhi during the last 20 years by making tempting promises and getting people registered fraudulently,” Sachdeva said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while launching various projects and schemes of the BJP government in Delhi on Wednesday, said the ruling party supports the SIR and accused the Congress of seeking to win polls with the help of infiltrators-turned-voters.

Sachdeva told reporters that opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal oppose SIR to “retain” infiltrator voters to get their support.

“The BJP will continue to make every effort to ensure that Delhi’s voter list includes only genuine voters of Delhi, and that no fake names or infiltrators are in it,” he asserted.

“In the recently concluded Assembly elections this year, we revealed how in some cases, 60 to 100 votes were registered at a single address. Even fake house numbers were placed on footpaths to create minority votes,” he claimed.

There was a sudden increase of 13 lakh voters in Delhi in the 2015 Assembly elections. The 2020 Assembly elections also saw an increase of more than 8 lakh voters, he claimed.

“A detailed investigation revealed that these included infiltrators and individuals who were not even citizens of Delhi,” said the Delhi BJP president.

Welcoming the SIR in Delhi, he said this process will take into account the 2002 voter list. People whose names were on the 2002 list will only need to fill out an enumeration form. Those not listed must provide a copy of their parents’ names from the 2002 list as supporting documentation, he added.

According to an official statement, the Election Commission has decided to begin the SIR across the country for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the electoral rolls.

The Delhi CEO office has also started preparations for it by appointing booth-level officers in all 70 Assembly constituencies and training election officials.