Delhi Minister and AAP leader Atishi on Saturday cast her vote in the sixth phase of the general elections and alleged that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi VK Saxena, held a meeting with Delhi Police to slow down the voting process in areas which are strongholds of the INDIA bloc.
“We have received official information that last evening, LG had called a meeting of Delhi Police officials and instructions were given to Delhi Police that in all the areas which are strongholds of the INDIA alliance, voting should be slowed down in those areas. If this happens then it will be a violation of free and fair elections. So we hope that the Election Commission will take cognizance of this,” Atishi alleged.
Atishi cast her vote in New Delhi’s Kalkaji area. The New Delhi constituency is seeing a fight between AAP’s Somnath Bharti and BJP’s Bansuri Swaraj.
Further, the AAP leader urged the people to come out and vote.
“I hope that the people of Delhi and the country will come out of their homes and vote despite the heat. Elections are a festival of democracy and it is the responsibility of every person to participate in it,” she added.
Earlier, Atishi had made the same allegation in a post on X to which Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said “This is shocking. EC should ensure smooth voting in Delhi.”
Responding to the AAP’s allegations, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena said, “I have taken a stern view of this unwarranted & false statement on the eve of election against a constitutional authority by a Minister, endorsed by you.”
“This impropriety is unacceptable & these typically absurd & concocted claims are a deliberate design to subvert democracy by misleading voters. Strict action will be taken,” VK Saxena said further in the post.
The sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls includes eight seats in Bihar, all 10 seats in Haryana, one seat in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, all seven seats in Delhi, six in Odisha, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, and eight in West Bengal. A total of 889 candidates are in the fray.
All parliamentary seats in Delhi and Haryana will go to the polls in this phase.
The riveting contest in Delhi has AAP and Congress jointly taking on the BJP, which won all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital in the last two elections. While Congress is contesting on three seats in the national capital, AAP is contesting on four. The two parties are part of the INDIA bloc.