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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and workers were stopped by police personnel at barricades on Wednesday as they staged a protest march from the Sindhi Academy near Kashmere Gate towards the Delhi Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) office, alleging widespread "vote theft."
Speaking to ANI, senior AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the authorities of orchestrating systematic voter deletions, calling the scale of the alleged disenfranchisement "outright fraud." "Today, we will approach the CEO, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, because in the irregularities they committed during the election, AAP was defeated unfairly in 2025. Following that, nearly 50 lakh votesaround 47 lakh people's names were deleted during the SIR (Special Intensive Revision); 11 lakh were deleted prior to the SIR, and notices were issued to 33 lakh people. If they strike off more than half of Delhi's votes like this, it is outright fraud," Bhardwaj said during the march. Reiterating that the party would not back down, Bhardwaj said AAP would continue to challenge both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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 asserted. Responding to queries regarding the broader opposition coalition, the AAP leader clarified, "We are not part of the INDIA bloc, but we are certainly in India." The AAPs protest came a day after Rahul Gandhi led INDIA bloc MPs in a march from Parliament towards the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. They demanded the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. The march was stopped by police near the NITI Aayog area, after which Opposition leaders staged a sit-in. The Opposition has accused the Election Commission of failing to address its concerns over voter-list revisions and has demanded greater transparency in the SIR process. The INDIA bloc had announced a broader "Save Democracy" campaign, including protests against the CEC and the SIR exercise. Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the electoral process was being undermined and has sought a meeting with the Election Commissioners to raise the opposition's concerns. The BJP, however, has defended the electoral revision process and accused the Opposition of questioning institutions after electoral setbacks. The political confrontation over SIR comes amid continuing debate over voter-list revisions, Form 6 and the role of the Election Commission, with the Opposition demanding answers from the poll panel and the ruling side defending the exercise. (ANI)
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