BJP takes on AAP over voters’ rolls, says govt intentionally hiding details

The alleged mass deletion of voters’ names from Delhi’s electoral rolls came up in the assembly on Wednesday with Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta accusing the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government of “intentionally” not furnishing details provided by the city’s chief electoral officer (CEO).

Gupta said the chief electoral officer’s(CEO) office had sent a detailed reply to the government and the assembly secretariat in December last year on a resolution passed by the House seeking an inquiry into the deletion of votes and action against erring officers.

The BJP leader said the government hid the reply because it “exposed” the “lies” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which over the past four months claimed that the names of over 24 lakh voters, especially of Bania, Purvanchali and Muslims, were deleted since the last assembly elections.

Gupta and BJP MLAs Manjinder Singh Sirsa, OP Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan staged a walkout from the House to protest what they said was the “false hype” created by AAP.

“As the information was concealed, action should be taken for breach of privilege against minister for elections Imran Hussain under Rule 106 (2) and 66 of the House. The minister, in his reply, told the House that the Election Commission does not maintain caste-based data of voters, which demolished the charge that names were deleted based on caste,” he said.

Gupta presented replies by the election office to his unstarred question and alleged that Hussain knew about the documents. As per data presented in the House on Wednesday, 11,54,332 names were deleted and 18,44,711 names were added from 2015-2018.

“Thus, 690,379 names were added in these four years. This figure exposed the lie and propaganda of the chief minister,” he said later. AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, had been hitting out at the BJP over the alleged mass deletion of voters’ names in Delhi in collusion with poll panel officials.

The House also discussed the Delhi budget 2019-20. AAP MLAs such as Sanjeev Jha and Pankaj Pushkar praised Sisodia for going back to their 70-point manifesto and works done in the education sector.

BJP MLA from Rajouri Garden, Sirsa, expressed disappointment over the non-allocation of any fund to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

“The government has failed to provide any job, house or social benefits to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The AAP government says 21,000 classrooms will be built but the truth is that around 20,000 posts of teachers are vacant,” he said. AAP has refused to comment on the BJP allegations.