AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has demanded the arrest and prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleged that recent elections were affected by “vote theft”, and called for the cancellation and reholding of several state polls.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday, Kejriwal cited an investigative report by The Indian Express and repeated AAP’s allegations concerning the functioning of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
Kejriwal alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were winning elections through vote manipulation and described Kumar as the alleged “mastermind” of the process. These are political allegations made by Kejriwal and were not established as facts in his remarks.
He also demanded that the SIR process be cancelled and that a voter list from three years ago be restored. Kejriwal claimed that more than 13 crore names had been deleted across 30 states under the revision process.
The AAP leader further alleged that the Election Commission was being run by the CEC without adequate participation of the other two commissioners. He referred to reported written objections by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi concerning orders, voter-list changes and access to electoral data.
{{/usCountry}}The AAP leader further alleged that the Election Commission was being run by the CEC without adequate participation of the other two commissioners. He referred to reported written objections by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi concerning orders, voter-list changes and access to electoral data.
{{/usCountry}}The Election Commission, in a response reported by The Indian Express, said the decisions cited in the investigation were outcomes of unanimous decisions of the full commission and described differing views as part of institutional deliberation.
Kejriwal also sought cancellation and fresh polling for elections held in Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in recent years. He said changes made to voter lists over the past two to three years should be rejected and new voters added through disputed changes to Form 6 should be reviewed.