AAP leaders meet CEO, complain wrongful deletion of voters in SIR drive

New Delhi: AAP leaders on Thursday met the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to complain that a large number of voters were “wrongfully” removed from the electoral rolls in the ongoing SIR exercise after being shown as “shifted” from their registered addresses. A delegation of AAP leaders, headed by state president Saurabh Bharadwaj, submitted several crucial suggestions before the Delhi CEO, senior party leader and MLA Sanjeev Jha said in a post on X. It was suggested that the entire data on voters marked as “shifted” should be shared with the booth level agents (BLAs) of political parties to maintain transparency and ensure that no valid voter’s name is omitted from the electoral rolls, he said. Jha said that the Delhi CEO assured that the suggestions would be considered to take necessary steps. The SIR exercise in Delhi started June 30. The verification phase involving filling and submitting enumeration forms by voters is underway. The last date of submitting completed forms is August 17.

The draft electoral rolls of Delhi will be published on August 24. After disposal of claims and objections, the final voters lists will be published on October 27. There are currently 1.45 crore voters in Delhi.

Meanwhile, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday his Instagram account has been restricted in India and urged others facing a similar issue to get in touch with him. In a post on X, Kejriwal said enquiries at Meta’s India office revealed that his Instagram account had been restricted and was unavailable in India. Kejriwal said in a video post on X, “I have got to know that whoever is speaking against ethanol or paper leak, their social media accounts are being suppressed. If anyone else is also facing the same issue, please message me.”