Opposition in Delhi accuses Kejriwal of 'lying' on issue of voters' deletion from rolls

Opposition walked out of the House "in anger" after accusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "hiding" a reply of Delhi's chief electoral officer on the issue of the alleged mass deletion of voters' names from the list. Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta, BJP MLAs OP Sharma, MS Sirsa, and Jagdish Pradhan expressed anger and walked out of the House.

New Delhi: Opposition walked out of the House "in anger" after accusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of "hiding" a reply of Delhi's chief electoral officer on the issue of the alleged mass deletion of voters' names from the list.

Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta expressed anger about the exposure of Kejriwal's "lie" about deletion of 24 lakh names from the voters' list by his own minister in a reply of a question, concealing from the House the important letter of the Chief Election Office dated December 14, 2018 on the subject and not submitting the report on the resolution adopted by the Delhi Assembly within the stipulated period of three months which expired on Wednesday.

Along with Gupta, BJP MLAs OP Sharma, MS Sirsa, and Jagdish Pradhan also walked out of the House.

As the Government concealed the letter of the CEO from the House, Opposition members tabled it in the House obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. They sought action for breach of privilege against Election Minister Imran Hussain under Rule 106 (2) and 66 for concealing the facts and failure to submit the report in time.

Gupta said that the lie of Kejriwal about the deletion of 24 lakh names from voter's list was exposed by his own Minister for elections Imran Hussain in a reply to the question of him.

As per the facts presented by the Minister in the House, 11, 54,332 names were deleted and 18, 44,711 names were added during the four years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Thus, 6, 90,379 names were added during these four years. This figure exposed the lie and propaganda of the Chief Minister.

Gupta said that the House yesterday passed a resolution that a Committee will examine the matter and submit the report within three months. But the Government did not submit the report till last day i.e. today. The Government concealed the reply submitted by the Election Officer on 14 December 2018. As per Rule 106(2), the Minister should have taken the House into confidence in the last House itself. But no information or report was given to the House till the last today thereby breaching the privilege of the House.

(With inputs from ANI)