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The Bharatiya Janata Party has complained to the Election Commission of India the Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal had violated electoral laws by simultaneously being an elector in three constituencies. It said his name was on the electoral list of Sahibabad (Ghaziabad), Sunder Nagari (Delhi) and Hanuman Road (New Delhi).
The BJP has alleged that this violates the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, which mandates that the name of an elector should be present in only one constituency.
“[The] photo identity card of Kejriwal issued in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi bears the same serial number. As per the common knowledge, this fact is unlikely to happen. Kejriwal has violated the election laws and he is liable to be penalised,” said the BJP’s complaint. The complainants are BJP members Satish Upadhyay and Harish Khurana.
A spokesperson of AAP clarified that Kejriwal had asked the Election Commission to remove his name from the other two lists and retain the Hanuman Road one. “It is up to the Election Commission to act on it now,” said the spokesperson.
Former Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy told Business Standard that any action against Kejriwal would depend on whether mens rea (criminal intent) can be established. Otherwise, Kejriwal can cite his pending application with the Election Commission, which is unlikely to lead to any action by the Commission.
In another unrelated case, Kejriwal on Monday sought two more days from the Election Commission to reply to its notice for violating the model code of conduct by appealing to Muslims in Delhi for votes on religious grounds. He was served a notice by the EC on November 20 after he distributed pamphlets asking Muslims to vote for AAP and was asked to reply by Monday morning.
