AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday accused the BJP of getting voters' names deleted from electoral rolls in Delhi as a "last resort" to avoid defeat in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Hitting back at the AAP, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said it was expressing "hopelessness" by mounting an attack on the Election Commission over alleged deletion of names of 15 lakh voters.
Kejriwal's attack on the BJP came a day after his party leader Raghav Chadha termed the EC's inquiry into the alleged deletion of names from the voters' list in Tughlaqabad as "farcical".
The EC had conducted a door-to-door survey in Lal Kuan and Harikesh Nagar areas of the Tughlaqabad Assembly segment to verify AAP's claims that "over one lakh votes were deleted in South Delhi since the last assembly elections in 2015".
"BJP is losing. This seems to be the last resort of BJP. They have got lakhs of names deleted from voter lists. Hope EC wud take immediate action (sic)," Kejriwal said in a tweet.
In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat, Chadha demanded a fresh inquiry into the alleged deletion of names.
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Delhi BJP chief Tiwari claimed the AAP is staring at defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and is now attacking the EC which proves its "anarchic" nature.
"Terming the EC's verification exercise farcical and hogwash proves the AAP's anarchic nature. The commission should ensure action against them," Tiwari said.
An AAP delegation had met the chief election commissioner earlier this month, alleging that names of over 10 lakh voters, mostly supporting the AAP and the Congress, were deleted in Delhi since the 2015 Assembly elections.
The District Election Officer of South East Delhi termed the AAP's charge "baseless" and said the verification exercise on the complaint of the party was conducted in a transparent manner.
The officer also denied the AAP's charge that a list of deleted votes was not provided to political parties in Delhi.