The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have traded allegations of electoral roll tampering ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, expected early next year.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of attempting to rig the polls through its alleged “Operation Lotus.” “In just 15 days, the BJP submitted 5,000 applications to delete votes and 7,500 to add new ones in the New Delhi constituency alone,” Kejriwal said at a press conference.
He claimed that after verifying 500 deletion applications, 408 were found to belong to voters who had lived at their addresses for over 20 years. “Deleting legitimate voters is akin to stripping them of citizenship,” he said, adding that fraudulent additions included votes registered at non-existent houses.
Kejriwal warned government officials against engaging in illegal practices. “Governments may change, but files and signatures remain as evidence,” he cautioned.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh also alleged that the BJP targeted his wife, Anita Singh, by attempting to remove her name from the voter list twice. “This is retaliation because I raised issues concerning Purvanchalis and people from UP and Bihar,” Singh said.
In response, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva accused AAP of voter roll manipulation. “Over 2,000 new voter applications were filed in Narela on December 24, and similar spikes were seen in other constituencies,” he said, alleging that these applications were part of a larger scheme to influence all 70 constituencies.
Sachdeva claimed the new applications were not from first-time voters aged 18-20 but from older individuals. “Where did these voters come from, and who brought them?” he asked, adding that the BJP has submitted complaints to the Election Commission.
Both parties have called for fair elections, with the BJP emphasizing that it will not allow “bogus votes” and AAP demanding accountability for alleged voter suppression.
