NEW DELHI: With tears in her eyes, an emotionally disturbed Delhi Chief Minister Atishi on Monday hit out at BJP candidate from Kalkaji seat Ramesh Bidhuri for his “dirty politics” and stooping so low to attack his 80-year-old educationist father.
“He is seeking votes by abusing my father and not on his performance in the constituency, ” Atishi alleged claiming that attacks on her father are very disturbing.
Earlier, during a rally in Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri stated, "Atishi has changed her father. She used to be Marlena, but now she is Singh. Her parents had filed a petition seeking clemency for Afzal Guru, the man responsible for killing young people."
Slamming Bidhuri, CM Atishi said he should not indulge in dirty politics for seeking votes. “You are abusing an old man who can’t even walk without support. My father is a teacher who has educated underprivileged students all his life and you are abusing him and indulging in dirty politics.”
Challenging Bidhuri to a fair electoral fight in the Kalkaji constituency, CM Atishi said, “If you want to win votes you should tell people what you have done for them when you were an MP from the area. You should tell me how many roads you have built, and I will tell you what I have done for the voters.”
Atishi’s counter-offensive against Bidhuri came during a press conference to allege a “voter scam” in the garb of deletion and addition of voters' names in the New Delhi Assembly constituency of Arvind Kejriwal.
CM Atishi said she wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner on Sunday and sought time for a meeting to share the details of the alleged manipulation of the voters list being executed to vitiate the democratic process.
“Between October 29 and January 2, applications have been filed for deletion of 6, 167 voter names, ” she said, claiming 11 objectors, out of the total 84, have denied even filing any application for deletion of names of voters.
“The role of the Election Commission’s administration is also doubtful, ” she said, claiming that about 10, 000 new voters or 10 per cent of voters have been added to the constituency’s electoral rolls and 6, 167 named or 5.7 per cent of names have been deleted.
She said a probe should be conducted on who filed these forms when 11 objectors are themselves denying having done so.
“We want the exercise of addition and deletion of voters’ names should be stopped till it is clear who filed Form 7 for removal and from which cyber cafe, ” she said.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh said the name of his wife Anita was also illegally deleted and alleged that the BJP, which has conceded defeat even before elections, is resorting to “manipulation” and sheltering “bogus or ghost objectors”.
“I demand action against election officials who are allowing such wrongdoings, ” he said, claiming a woman named Madhu, who was cited by election officials as the objector in the case of deletion of his wife’s name from voters’ list, has denied filing even a single Form 7.
AAP MP Raghav Chadha said the party wants a house-to-house verification of objectors. “When we offered to conduct the verification, we were not given the addresses of the objectors, ” he said.
“We urged the election officials to call the objectors to their office but even this request was also denied, claiming this would endanger the objectors or intrude on their privacy, ” said Chadha.
At least, those objectors who have denied filing forms for deletion of names of others should be contacted, he said.
Kejriwal had won the 2020 election from New Delhi by defeating Sunil Yadav of BJP by a margin of 21, 697.
Sanjay Singh claimed that the AAP’s campaign against “voter scam” in the New Delhi constituency should not be seen as an indication of the possible loss of Kejriwal in the upcoming election.
“We are objecting to a malpractice and demanding inquiry by the ECI where evidence is available, ” he said.