4 days ago
State unit of AAP seeks digital copies of electoral rolls in Excel format from Gujarat CEC
The Gujarat unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has requested the digital copies of electoral rolls used in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections of 2016 and 2021, as well as the Gujarat Assembly polls of 2017 and 2022 in Excel format from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
AAP's Gujarat General Secretary, Sagar Rabari, has penned a letter to Chief Electoral Officer (CEC) of Gujarat, seeking the digital copies of the rolls in seven days.
Rabari has threatened to launch a public agitation against the ECI in case the said information is not received in seven days.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday at the party's headquarters in Ahmedabad, Rabari, accompanied by party's spokesperson Karan Barot, also released the letter sent to the CEC.
In his letter to the CEC, Rabari has stated that AAP national convener and former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, had raised the issue of many complaints of irregularities in electoral rolls before the assembly polls in Delhi, but no correction was made in it then.
'After that the electoral rolls used in Maharashtra assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections have strongly come under suspicion. The issue has been raised strongly at national level,' Rabari stated in the letter.
'All the opposition parties are coming together and fighting for the equal voting right of the voters, transparent elections and saving the democracy,' Rabari stated further.
He added, 'In Gujarat, during the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections in 2016, complaints were raised that entire societies of Patidar community, in large numbers, had gone missing from the electoral rolls at the last moment. Similarly, there is a strong belief among people that during the assembly elections (of 2017), all the classes of the society were agitating and there was immense opposition towards the government and despite that BJP won the elections in an undemocratic manner'.
'In the elections of 2022 too, people were discussing that similar irregularities had been committed,' the AAP leader said.
Rabari has sought the digital copies of the electoral rolls from CEC to ensure that the confidence of voters of Gujarat 'stays intact' in the 'election process, election commission and democracy.'
'If the Commission fails to provide the electoral rolls as sought… then the people of Gujarat will consider it as the Commission's partnership in murder of democracy. As a national party, (it will) force us to do extensive public awareness and public agitation to protect democracy, equal rights, and the Constitution which will not be good for the national and international image of the Commission,' said Rabari.
Reacting to the AAP's claims on BJP winning election in undemocratic manner, media convener of Gujarat BJP, Yagnesh Dave, said, 'If BJP won in undemocratic manner, then it can be said that Gopal Italia (of AAP) too won in undemocratic manner (in the recent Visavadar bypoll). In the past, they won thrice in Delhi and twice in Punjab. Did they win there also in an undemocratic manner? The same Election Commission was there too.'
'Secondly, the Election Commission puts its electoral rolls online. There is no need to ask for it. You can download it from the Election Commission's website even today. Everything is open. I don't know which age they live in. In short, without evidence, it is their tendency and method of making allegations against BJP,' he said.
