On Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal met with senior Election Commission officials, urging them to bar his rival, BJP’s Parvesh Verma, from contesting the Delhi Assembly elections. Kejriwal accused Verma, the BJP candidate for the New Delhi constituency, of engaging in “corrupt practices” by distributing money at job camps. He called on the Election Commission to “raid his house” to investigate the matter further.

“Parvesh Verma is organizing job camps and openly distributing money, which falls under corrupt practices as per the Election Commission’s guidelines. He should be banned from contesting, and a raid should be conducted at his residence to determine how much money he is hoarding,” Kejriwal said after he met with the poll body.

Kejriwal also alleged that fake voters were being added to the electoral rolls in the New Delhi constituency. He claimed that between December 15 and January 7, 5,500 applications for voter cancellations were filed, most of which were fake. According to him, these applications were lodged in the names of unsuspecting individuals, and the authorities discovered the fraud when the affected people denied submitting the requests. Kejriwal further accused the BJP of attempting to create 13,000 new fake voter entries in the last two weeks by bringing in people from other states.

Additionally, Kejriwal alleged that the local election officer in the New Delhi constituency was aiding the BJP’s wrongdoing. “The local officer has surrendered to the BJP, enabling these fraudulent activities. The Election Commission has assured us that strict action will be taken, and the local DEO and ERO should be suspended,” he added.

These accusations follow Kejriwal’s earlier claims that the BJP had directed its seven MPs from Delhi to orchestrate the creation of fake voter identities. The AAP chief had previously alleged that the BJP was attempting to delete voters’ names from the electoral rolls in the constituency.

However, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar rejected the allegations of voter deletion, stating that numerous safeguards are in place to ensure transparency in the process. “Indian voters are very aware, and there are over 70 steps to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls. Any claims or objections raised by political parties are addressed. No voter deletion can occur without Form 7,” Kumar explained.

The Delhi Assembly elections are set for February 5, with vote counting scheduled for February 8.