AAP leader Somnath Bharti alleges a conspiracy by the BJP and Election Commission to delete 30 lakh votes in Delhi through the Special Intensive Revision, claiming the process unfairly targets tenants and those not on the 2002 electoral roll.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti has called out the BJP and the Election Commission (EC) over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), claiming that the BJP was using the exercise to orchestrate the deletion of 30 lakh votes in Delhi. He said the EC’s requirement for voters or their parents to be listed in the 2002 electoral roll was excluding lakhs of eligible voters. The senior AAP leader also said that despite living in Delhi since before 2002, neither his name nor his parents’ names appear in the electoral roll. He also noted that a large number of tenants were having their votes deleted because they lacked permanent proof of residence in the city.
AAP Questions SIR Exercise, Cites Flaws
Addressing a press conference at the AAP headquarters on Monday, senior AAP leader and former Delhi Minister Somnath Bharti said, “The deadline for the ongoing SIR exercise in Delhi has been extended from July 29 to August 8. As of Sunday, only 47% of voters in my Malviya Nagar Assembly constituency had been verified. In such a situation, how is it possible to verify the remaining 53% of voters in the next five days?”
Somnath Bharti added, “The SIR form requires people to furnish unusual details. If someone is listed in the 2002 electoral roll, they have to provide their own details. If not, they are required to furnish the details of their parents or grandparents.”
Bharti Highlights Personal Ordeal
He said he searched extensively through the 2002 electoral roll but could not find his own name, his mother’s name, or his father’s name. He further highlighted, “My father passed away in 2016, but I still have his 1996 Delhi voter ID card. My mother took voluntary retirement (VRS) around 2005 and shifted from Bihar to Delhi, and she has a 2004 voter ID card. Yet I cannot find my mother’s name in the Bihar electoral roll or my father’s name in the Delhi electoral roll.” He added that his own name was also missing from the electoral roll.
Somnath Bharti said he graduated from IIT in 1997, later studied law at Delhi University, and received his degree in 2008. He further said that he moved into his current residence in 2005, meaning he had already been living in Delhi in 2002.
“If someone like me is facing so much difficulty in locating my own and my parents’ names in the 2002 electoral roll, imagine what ordinary people must be going through. I want to ask Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar where I am supposed to obtain proof from now, and what I am supposed to do,” he stated.
The former Delhi Minister further said he was astonished that despite having so many documents, he was still unable to establish his eligibility, and he asked, “Where will ordinary citizens go in such circumstances? In places where literacy levels are low and educational institutions have been shut down, how will an ordinary citizen prove their eligibility?”
‘Conspiracy to Delete Votes of AAP Supporters’
He questioned whether the Election Commission had decided to function entirely as the BJP’s Commission. “A massive conspiracy is underway to delete 20 to 30 lakh votes in Delhi. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are being called to BJP legislators’ offices and instructed on whose names should remain on each booth’s electoral roll. Those people are not being asked to furnish any proof,” he asserted.
The senior AAP leader added, “Profiling voters at any polling booth in Delhi is very easy. A booth with around 1,000 voters generally covers about 200 households. Around 50 residential buildings make up one polling booth, where people can simply sit in a nearby park and profile residents to determine who supports the BJP and who supports the AAP. Through such profiling, 60-70% of votes can easily be secured. If the intention is to delete AAP supporters’ votes, the remaining 20% can simply be asked to produce documents, knowing they will be unable to prove themselves and their votes will be deleted.”
Tenants Disproportionately Affected, Claims Bharti
Somnath Bharti noted, “A very large number of people in Delhi live in rented accommodation. The biggest problem for tenants is that once they obtain an Aadhaar card, voter ID, or passport using a particular address, landlords threaten to either evict them or increase the rent after 11 months.”
Among poorer sections, he said, landlords often do not allow tenants to obtain any permanent address proof linked to the property. As a result, he added, many such tenants are now having their votes deleted. He emphasised, “All of them are genuine Indian citizens. They are not Bangladeshis, as the BJP claims. The manner in which the SIR exercise is being carried out amounts to a direct assault on democracy and will prove very costly.”
Addressing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Somanth Bharti said, “Just as people gathered at Jantar Mantar, if you do not change course, we have other ways to make you do so. The attempt to help the BJP win elections by deleting people’s votes, conspiring with the BJP, and undermining democracy is completely wrong.”
(ANI)
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