Ahead of Delhi polls: BJP drive to detect bogus voters

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the assembly polls, BJP is going all out to identify bogus voters in the city, especially in those constituencies which it lost in the 2013 election. After Patparganj, BJP has found 740 bogus voters in the Chandni Chowk assembly constituency. The party has written to chief electoral officer of Delhi in this regard.

During a door-to-door campaign, BJP's Chandni Chowk district committee has detected 740 bogus voters in Bela Estate Vijay Ghat area. Party workers say none of the voters live there as it was an agricultural land. Interestingly, all 740 voters have "agriculture" written in the address column in their voter IDs. "There are no photos of voters. These people don't live here, but still their names exist in the voters' list. Most of the people have agricultural land written in the address column. It is a serious matter and we have requested the chief electoral officer to look into the matter,'' said Suman Gupta, Chandni Chowk district president of BJP.

According to BJP members, a few years ago there was a slum in the area, which was relocated following construction of a flyover in 2003. But no changes were made in the voters' list. These people continue to vote in the Chandni Chowk constituency.

Similarly, the government had relocated slums from More Sarai railway colony and near Azad Market flyover. But the election commission didn't transfer the votes. These people continue to vote in the old constituency. "At a time when the election commission is revising the voters' list, it should also check for slums and colonies, which have been relocated. If colonies or slums have bee relocated, it is the election commission's responsibility to transfer the voters' list to the new area,'' said Gupta.

A week ago, East Delhi MP Maheish Girri had written to the election commission on bogus voters in his constituency. The local unit of BJP found 100-plus bogus voters in the Patparganj constituency, which was bagged by AAP's Manish Sisodia in the last election. "It is a serious matter and we had reported it to the election commission. We found people who had three-four voter IDs. We have submitted the voters' list which had such cases. The commission should ask its BLOs to check the voters' list,'' said Virendra Sachdeva, president, Mayur Vihar district committee of BJP.

Interestingly, it was Aam Aadmi Party that had accused the BJP of getting bogus votes in each constituency. And now, BJP is trying to weed out bogus voters in the city.