Anti-BJP votes deleted across country: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Twitter questioned the Election Commission (EC) over the fairness of the ongoing polls and claimed that genuine anti-BJP votes have been deleted across India at an “unprecedented scale” while his deputy Manish Sisodia accused the EC of “serving the BJP”.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Mr Kejriwal tagged the people who claimed their names or the names of their relatives have been deleted from the voter lists.

“What is happening EC? Are these elections fair?” Mr Kejriwal said in a tweet. “Anti-BJP votes deleted all across India. Reports coming that votes have been deleted on an unprecedented scale. Why are all faulty EVM machines were seen to be voting always for BJP?” he said in a tweet.

Polling began Thursday morning in 91 constituencies spread across 18 states and two union territories in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections.

He re-tweeted and shared profiles of a number of people whose names have been deleted. One of them included businesswoman Kiran Mazumdar Shaw who said her mother’s name has been deleted.

“My mother’s voter ID has been deleted on some flimsy excuse that there was a report that she no longer lives at her address. She is so upset, I can’t tell you because she has been at the same address for 19 years. So much for ‘verification’,” she said in a tweet.

Questioning the EC, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that the poll body is serving the BJP.

“EC of India! Please see what you are doing to ‘Voters of India’. So many people reporting about the illegal deletion of their own votes. Is this the way you want to serve India? This nothing but serving BJP,” he said in a tweet.

Mr Kejriwal also re-tweeted badminton player Jwala Gutta’s status where she had shared the profile of a voter who claimed her name was deleted.