New Delhi, October 7: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers were stopped by police barricades on Wednesday while marching from Sindhi Academy near Kashmere Gate towards the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office to protest what they alleged were large-scale irregularities in voter-list revisions.Senior AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the authorities of systematically deleting voters’ names and termed the alleged disenfranchisement an “outright fraud.”Addressing the protesters, Bhardwaj claimed that around 47 lakh names had been deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), while another 11 lakh names were removed before the exercise and notices were issued to around 33 lakh people.He alleged that the deletion of such a large number of voters could significantly affect the electoral process in Delhi. Bhardwaj said the AAP would continue to raise the issue with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government and the Election Commission.“We have been continuously raising our voice against the BJP and the Election Commission, and we will keep raising it,” he said.On the Opposition alliance, Bhardwaj clarified that AAP was not part of the INDIA bloc, but maintained that the party remained committed to raising issues concerning democracy and elections.The AAP protest came a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led INDIA bloc MPs in a march from Parliament towards the Election Commission headquarters over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. The march was stopped by police near the NITI Aayog area, following which Opposition leaders staged a sit-in.The Opposition has accused the Election Commission of failing to adequately address concerns over voter-list revisions and has demanded greater transparency in the SIR process. The INDIA bloc has also announced a broader “Save Democracy” campaign against the Chief Election Commissioner and the revision exercise.Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the electoral process is being undermined and has sought a meeting with the Election Commissioners to discuss the Opposition’s concerns.The BJP, however, has defended the electoral revision exercise and accused the Opposition of targeting constitutional institutions following electoral setbacks.The dispute over SIR, voter deletions, Form 6 applications and the role of the Election Commission continues to fuel a political confrontation between the ruling party and the Opposition, with both sides maintaining sharply different positions on the ongoing voter-list revision process.
AAP workers stopped by police during protest over alleged ‘Vote Theft’ in Delhi
