The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on Monday, filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging the deletion of voters’ names in the national capital, ahead of the assembly elections.

In a letter addressed to the electoral registration officers (EROs) of all 70 assembly constituencies, AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta demanded immediate action to halt further deletion of names from voter lists across the city, citing procedural violations and potential undermining of the recent Summary Revision exercise.

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Citing the Election Commission’s Manual on Electoral Roll issued in March 2023 barring any individual or organization from submitting bulk applications for deletion of voters, the party demanded that all such applications should be rejected ab initio.

Furthermore, it has warned of legal action against the officials who fail to uphold the integrity of the electoral process.

Using Shahdara Assembly constituency (AC-62) as a case study, the AAP alleged that the names of over 11,000 voters have been targeted for deletion in the past six weeks under the guise of shifted residences, duplications, or deaths.

“The concerned ERO has issued orders for taking action on BJP’s application for mass deletion for voters. However, these lists submitted by the BJP were being processed without uploading them on the website, which is a mandatory requirement. This means that the 11,000 applications submitted by BJP are being processed surreptitiously without being displayed on the website. The AAP is taking appropriate legal action against the errant officials of the Election Commission and the officials of the BJP in Shahdara,” the letter says.

Through the letter, the AAP sought to know if any such applications have been received from the BJP or any other quarters for deletion of voters in any assembly constituency, which are not reflected on the Election Commission website and are either lying pending or being processed. “If yes, the details of the same may kindly be provided to us immediately,” it added.

“The Election Commission recently conducted a large-scale Summary Revision exercise from August 20 to October 18 and subsequently published the electoral rolls on October 29. Once such an exercise is undertaken across all Assembly constituencies in Delhi-NCT, there remains no room for subsequent mass voter deletion. Such a mega deletion exercise is against the spirit of free and fair elections and would undermine the Summary Revision process of the Election Commission itself,” the letter mentioned.

The AAP also demanded that no further deletion of voters should be carried out in any assembly constituency to protect the integrity of the electoral process in the NCT of Delhi.

“In case the Election Commission deems it necessary to delete the name of any voter, we demand that the same should be done through a ground verification exercise by the concerned BLO in the presence of our BLA-2 so that genuine voters aren’t wrongfully removed from the voter list,” Gupta mentioned in the letter.

It also warned officials of possible legal action, stating, “We put you to notice that even a single wrongful deletion in your assembly constituency will attract severe penal provisions under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita 2023 and Representation of People Act 1950 against any and every official involved.”

Earlier, on December 6, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal had exposed how BJP is orchestrating a massive “vote deletion scam” aimed at undermining democracy in Delhi. Backed by evidence, the AAP

Convenor had asserted that the BJP is systematically targeting AAP supporters by unlawfully deleting their names from the voters’ list.

Highlighting the Shahdara Assembly, he revealed that the BJP applied to cut 11,018 votes, with an investigation revealing that 75% of these voters were alive and still residing at their registered addresses.