"Kejriwal is scared, using voter list as an excuse": Parvesh Verma hits back at AAP Chief

New Delhi [India], January 9 : BJP candidate from the New Delhi Assembly seat, Parvesh Verma on Thursday responded to Arvind Kejriwal's allegations about discrepancies in the voter list and said that the AAP chief, fearing defeat, has resorted to baseless accusations and diversionary tactics.
"Over the past five years, the number of voters in the New Delhi constituency has dropped from 1,46,000 to 1,04,000. This means 40,000 voters have been removed from the list. A total of 61,000 votes were deleted, while only 22,000 new voters were added. On average, 1,000 votes were removed from the list every month," Verma said in a statement.
He further slammed Kejriwal and said that soon, the AAP Chief will start blaming EVMs for his defeat.
"Kejriwal is scared. The fear of losing has gripped him. That's why he is now using the voter list issue as an excuse. Soon, he will start blaming EVMs for his defeat," Parvesh Verma said.
"It is clear that Kejriwal is aware of his declining popularity. His hold over the voters in this area has weakened, and to divert attention, he is making baseless accusations. The people of New Delhi are smart and will not be misled by such claims," the BJP leader added.
Earlier today, an Aam Aadmi Party delegation led by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal met the Election Commission over their 'concerns' regarding alleged irregularities in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly elections.
The party highlighted a significant surge in voter registrations and deletions on the seat while alleging a "voter fraud" taking place at a large scale.
"The Chief Election Commissioner is out, but we met with the other two commissioners. One of the issues we raised was that in the New Delhi Legislative Assembly, between December 15 and January 7, a total of 5,500 votes were registered in 22 days. The total votes in this assembly are 1,00,000. This means that 5.5 per cent of the votes were registered in the last 22 days, which clearly indicates some irregularities. There are issues with these applications," Kejriwal told reporters after meeting the Election Commissioners, here on Thursday.
"When the lower officials investigated, the individuals whose names appeared on these applications denied having submitted any request to cut votes. 89 people had applied for 5,500 votes, and 18 of them came to the Election Commission and denied submitting any applications. This means there is a large-scale election fraud happening," he added.
The AAP Chief also alleged that from December 15 to January 8, 13,000 new voter applications were received. "Where did all these people come from in just 15 days? These people are coming from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to get fake votes registered," he said.
He also lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly targeting BJP candidate Parvesh Verma, accusing him of distributing money. He also raised objections against health camps and job fairs announced by the BJP.
Kejriwal said that the Election Commission assured them that "strict action" will be taken against any "corrupt practices".
"Thirdly, we pointed out that Parvesh Verma in the New Delhi seat is openly distributing money, and health camps are being held with glasses being distributed. He announced on January 15 that job fairs will be held. All of this falls under corrupt practices according to the Election Commission's rules. Parvesh Verma should be barred from contesting the election," he said.