Does this mean one-third of Delhiites were Bangladeshis, asks AAP as 47.7 lakh voters dropped from draft list after Delhi SIR

New Delhi: As nearly one-third of Delhi’s voters were excluded from the draft electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the national Capital, AAP Delhi President Saurabh Bharadwaj on Monday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) and asked whether the move implied that one-third of the city’s residents were Bangladeshi nationals.

Bharadwaj also questioned how the Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led Delhi government could have been formed around one-and-a-half years ago if such a large number of people were allegedly not eligible voters. He demanded that the Rekha Gupta government resign and fresh elections be held.

Speaking to IANS, Bharadwaj said, “I think the Election Commission should drown itself in a handful of water and die. The level of their shamelessness has reached the point where they have deleted the names of one-third of Delhi’s voters. Does that mean one-third of the people in Delhi were Bangladeshis?”

“Those who are choosing the MPs and MLAs, are they not voters? The Rekha Gupta government, which was formed one-and-a-half years ago, were one-third of the people not voters? Then resign and conduct the election process again,” he said.

Bharadwaj further alleged that the Rekha Gupta government was “anti-poor” and claimed that the exercise was aimed at depriving economically weaker sections of various facilities.

“So, this government is anti-poor. The poor are being removed and all the facilities are being taken away from them so that they leave Delhi and go anywhere else,” he told IANS.

Delhi’s draft electoral roll was published on Monday, with around 47.7 lakh electors excluded from the draft out of the city’s total 1.45 crore voters.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer said those excluded from the draft roll can file their claims until September 30 through Form 6 along with supporting documents. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4.

According to the revised Election Commission schedule, claims and objections will be examined, while the process of issuing notices and disposing of claims will continue until October 29.

The draft roll contains around 97.5 lakh electors whose enumeration forms were received and digitised under the SIR through a house-to-house exercise. The exercise began on June 30 and concluded on August 17.

Forms of around 67.18 per cent of Delhi’s 1,45,10,299 electors were digitised during the exercise.

The remaining 47.7 lakh electors were categorised as “uncollectable” under Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) and have not been included in the draft electoral roll.

IANS