Former Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that it has got the names of a large number of voters deleted ahead of the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

He alleged that BJP is orchestrating a massive “vote deletion scam” aimed at undermining democracy in Delhi, and the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

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Addressing a press conference here, the AAP chief accused the BJP of filing applications with the Election Commission of India (ECI) in view of getting the names of thousands of voters struck- off from the rolls across several constituencies.

Kejriwal also displayed papers that he claimed were applications filed by the BJP officials with the poll panel, which had their signatures.

The AAP chief claimed that they have already sent in applications to strike off names of 11,000 voters in the past one month.

He said that the application claims that either these 11,000 voters have relocated from the area, or have died.

Kejriwal claimed that the party has reviewed 500 deletion applications from the 11,018, and has found that 372 people are still alive and are residing at the same address.

Kejriwal said,”The BJP has filed an application to delete the names of 11,018 voters in the Shahdara area, but when we cross-checked that application on 500 names, 372 of them are still living there, but, their names can be deleted from the voter list, ” he added.

According to his claims, the majority of the applications include names of those who are AAP voters.

He said that Shahdara has a total of 1,86,362 votes, while during the last polls his party had won by 5,294 votes, while this time the saffron party wants to delete over 11,000 votes, and wondered as to what was the need of such an election.

He also raised suspicion over the poll panel, questioning its role in the matter as he claimed that the official website of the commission only has 487 such applications uploaded, alleging that 11,000 applications were silently being processed.

Hitting out at the saffron party and the poll panel, he alleged that both are hand in gloves and snatching away the right to vote from the people.

He claimed that during elections, voters discover that their names have been deleted from the rolls without any prior notice.

Kejriwal further said that this alleged manipulation raises serious doubts about the integrity of past elections in states like Haryana and Maharashtra, where similar allegations have been made.

As per AAP chief’s claims, BJP is afraid of the people, as they are extremely angry with the saffron party.

He alleged that the way BJP has ruined the law and order situation across Delhi is appalling, and claimed that now the residents of the city want to give it back.