AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged that the BJP is trying to get voters’ names deleted on a large scale in Delhi before the Assembly polls next year.

His allegations, which he claimed were backed by documentary evidence, come days after the Congress lodged a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) making similar claims in connection with the Maharashtra polls where the BJP and its allies were re-elected to power.

BJP Delhi president Virendra Sachdeva accused Kejriwal of encouraging “Bangladeshis and Rohingyas” to vote, though he could share no proof of their foreign nationality. He insisted that the BJP’s booth-level agents (BLA) are doing their duty of ensuring that “no fake vote is cast”.

The district magistrate of Shahdara, where the AAP alleged the irregularities, posted on X that the party’s claims were exaggerated. Higher election authorities did not respond to the allegations.

Kejriwal told reporters: “So far, we have only heard stories about how Haryana was won, how Maharashtra was won — this must have happened or that must have happened. But today, we are presenting evidence to show what the BJP is doing in the Delhi elections. The BJP is filing applications with the EC at a massive scale to delete voters. And secretly, the EC is processing these applications.

“In the Shahdara Assembly constituency, the BJP has filed applications to delete 11,018 voters in the past month…. Investigating all applications was not feasible in such a short time, so we randomly selected 500 voters to verify. Many of these addresses belong to slums, making them difficult to locate. However, out of the 500 voters investigated, we found 372 voters still residing at the same addresses.”

Kejriwal added: “When we spoke to these voters, we found that most of them are AAP supporters. Shahdara has 1,86,362 voters, and the BJP wants to delete 11,000 of them — nearly 6 per cent of the constituency’s voters…. In the last election, the AAP won the Shahdara seat by a margin of just 5,294 votes.

“As of yesterday, the Election Commission’s website showed only 487 applications for voter deletions in the Shahdara constituency over the past month. This means that the 11,000 applications submitted by the BJP are being processed secretly without being displayed on the website.”

Kejriwal added: “The BJP man who submitted this request to delete votes will face legal action. We will demand this from the Election Commission as well.... Additionally, I warn all officials: ‘Do not indulge in wrongdoing. The signatures are yours. Governments come and go, but documents remain permanent. If not today, then tomorrow you will go to jail.”

The AAP shared copies of the purported documents submitted by BJP booth-level agents for the deletion of names and a letter from an electoral registration officer in Shahdara to verify the claims made to delete voters who have shifted or died. AAP and Congress representatives are copied in the letter dated November 22. Several residents of the Ambedkar Nagar slum in Shahdara whose names appear on these lists were also present.

Sunil Parshad, a plastic factory worker, told The Telegraph: “I came from Jehanabad in Bihar 20 years ago. I last voted in the municipal polls in 2022. I couldn’t vote in the Lok Sabha as I had to work. When I was at work, neighbours said that some survey people came around to ask whom we vote for. A few days later a list started circulating. Locals are saying that these are the names that may be deleted.”

Shahdara’s district magistrate, who is also the district election officer, posted on X: “Only 494 Form 7 is received in Shahdara Assembly constituency since 29 October 2024. Hence, the claim that 11,018 Form 7 were filed by BJP in the last one month is factually incorrect.” Form 7 is the document used for deleting a voter’s name.

The AAP said: “This bulk deletion application filed by BJP office-bearer was duly accepted and acknowledged by the assistant electoral registration officer. Further, what is more shocking is that after receiving such a mala fide request, the ERO initiated the process of deletion — by issuing a letter dated 22.11.2024 to its AERO and BLOs.”