Union Minister Harsh Malhotra lashes out at Kejriwal over claims of vote deletion, says "he is misleading people of Delhi"

This comes after Kejriwal accused BJP of 'trying to cut votes' from the voter lists ahead of the Delhi Assembly election.Kejriwal doesn't have anything to show for the development works done in Delhi in the last 10 years, Malhotra said.

"Arvind Kejriwal has been misleading and lying to the people of Delhi for the last 10-12 years. He is not able to say anything about the development he has done in Delhi in the last 10 years because he did not do anything. He does not talk about issues. He talks about things which are not relevant," Malhotra, who is the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Corporate Affairs, told ANI.

Kejriwal alleged that the BJP had submitted an application to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to cut the votes of 11,000 people, citing that either these people had shifted or passed away.

Reacting to this, BJP leader Malhotra said that they have asked the Election Commission to check whether 50 people are living in a house of merely 20 yards. He said that it was not wrong to demand the ECI to check such discrepancies.

"The voters' list shows 50 people are living in a 20-yard house. We have just asked the Election Commission to check whether 50 people are actually living in a '20-yard' house or not. It is practically impossible. It is not wrong to demand the Election Commission to check it. Arvind Kejriwal should come out of these baseless arguments and tell about the development he has done in Delhi in the last 10 years..." Malhotra said.

"Kejriwal is scared BJP would win the Delhi assembly elections. Isliye abhi se unhoney gaana gana shuru kar diya (This is why he has started making excuses). Thode dino main EVM ka raag alapenge (In some days, they will start raising the EVM issue). Since his ship is sinking, Kejriwal has also started talking like this," the BJP leader said.

Earlier, Kejriwal said that AAP randomly checked 500 people from the list and found that 372 people are still living there.

"BJP has given application to cut votes in their letterhead. They had already given applications to cut votes of 11,000 people, in the last 1-1.5 months and that process is underway. In applications, it is said that these 11,018 people have either shifted or passed away. For us, to check all these 11,000 applications so we checked 500 randomly. Among these 500, 372 were found to be staying there only (at their address). They haven't shifted anywhere," Kejriwal claimed, adding that most of the voters on the list are AAP voters.

The Assembly polls in Delhi are expected to be held in early 2025. AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections and BJP secured eighth seats. (ANI)