Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Sunday, wrote to the District Election Commissioner complaining of an unusual spike in the addition and deletion of vote in the New Delhi constituency ahead of the assembly polls in the national capital.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Kejriwal said, “BJP’s Operation Lotus has started in the New Delhi assembly constituency as the saffron brigade has submitted applications to delete more than five thousand votes and add seven-and-a-half thousand votes in a span of 15 days.”

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“When the Election Commission went door-to-door for two months to register votes, from where did thousands of people come in 15 days whose votes are being registered? The BJP is bringing people from outside whose fake votes are being made in the capital city,” he added.

The AAP leader questioned the need to conduct elections when about 12 per cent of votes in the constituency are being manipulated. “A kind of ‘game’ is being played out in the name of election, and this kind of manipulation undermines the democratic values. We appeal to the Election Commission to continue its strict monitoring to prevent such malpractice,” Kejriwal pleaded.

Accusing the BJP of trying to win elections through unfair means, he said it has already lost elections. He said he won’t let the BJP, which neither has a chief ministerial face nor good candidates, win elections through such tactics.

The AAP also wrote to DEO claiming, “The total voters in the New Delhi assembly constituency as per Draft Electoral Roll issued on 29 October 2024 are 1, 06,873 and total deletion applications received from 29 October to 25 December are 5,692, which is 5.33 percent of the total voters and thus no deletion can be done without the personal cross verification by the ERO”.

“A total of 81 individuals have filed 4,529 applications and thus no deletion can be done without personal cross verification by the ERO in these cases as well,” the letter contended.

The ground-verification schedule of the ERO must be shared with BLAs of all political parties in advance so that representatives of political parties could accompany it during the process, he demanded. “Lastly, please note that your office is required to flag any critical influx of Forms 6, 7, or 8 in any assembly constituency to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO. I urge you to escalate this matter to the CEO at the earliest. Thank you for your prompt attention to this issue,” the letter added.