AAP chief writes to EC to raid Parvesh Singh’s house for ‘violating’ election code

Arvind Kejriwal requests CEC to raid opponent's house for MCC violation, seeks action on electoral roll manipulation.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) requesting to raid the house of his opponent and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from New Delhi Assembly constituency Parvesh Sahib Singh, claiming that he was distributing ₹1,100 each to women in violation of the model code of conduct (MCC).

Mr. Kejriwal also requested the CEC to suspend the District Election Officer (DEO) of the constituency, citing that the party had complained about the “manipulation” of electoral roll in the constituency to the DEO, but no action has been taken.

Responding to the complaint, the Election Commision directed the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, to take appropriate action. “I am directed to request you to get the complaint inquired into, ascertain the actual facts and take immediate appropriate action in accordance with the provisions of the model code of conduct, electoral laws and the extant guidelines of the Election Commission of India. Action Taken Report shall also be sent to the Commission,” the EC said in a letter to the CEO.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Kejriwal, along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, met the Election Commissioners and urged them to take action.

“In the past 22 days, 5,500 applications have been received for deletion of voter names in the New Delhi constituency. There are about 1 lakh voters in this constituency which means that applications to remove 5.5% of the voters have been filed in just 22 days. In fact, 89 people had filed 5,500 applications and of this, the 18 people who came forward, all of them said that they had not submitted any application. This means that there is a large-scale scam,” he said after meeting the Election Commissioners.

Mr. Kejriwal also said that between December 15 and now, there have been 13,000 new applications for voter registration in this small constituency with just 1 lakh voters. “Where did these 13,000 people come from in just 15 days? This is a clear indication that fake voters are being registered, likely brought in from States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar... We highlighted that this large-scale addition and deletion of votes, amounting to 18.5% of the total voter list, can completely distort the election process. If such manipulation continues, the election will not be fair but merely a farce,” he said.

Mr. Kejriwal’s reference to “fake voters” brought from U.P. and Bihar drew a sharp reaction from the BJP. While U.P. Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak demanded an apology to the people of the two States, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said AAP has failed to provide clean water, quality health care, or good education to Purvanchalis.