AAP supremo and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday accused BJP chief JP Nadda of equating Purvanchalis with Rohingyas and
Bangladeshi people, and admitting deletion of their votes in Delhi ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls.
Taking a dig at the BJP for not announcing its chief ministerial face for the Delhi Assembly polls due in February, Kejriwal called the
saffron party a "wedding party without a groom".
"They should tell the name. It’s a right of the people to know," he said addressing a press conference. Kejriwal accused the BJP of hatching a conspiracy to get the names of Purvanchalis in Delhi deleted from the voters list because they supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the elections.
"BJP president JP Nadda openly admitted in Parliament deletion of names of Purvanchalis, Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. The Purvanchalis are called Rohingyas. How can those who came from UP and Bihar to Delhi and were settled here for 30-40 years be called Rohingya or Bangladeshi?" he asked.
Arvind Kejriwal affirmed, “As we all know, a voter card is essential not only for voting but also for accessing several government services. By targeting voter cards, BJP is effectively depriving Purvanchalis of basic services and benefits.â€
Kejriwal said the AAP workers will go door to door across Delhi to tell the Purvnachali people about the BJP's "conspiracy".
AAP's Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi and a Purvanchali face of the party, Sanjay Singh, will undertake 'Ratri Pravas" (night stays) at Purvanchali dominated areas of the city to expose the BJP's "well planned conspiracy", he said.
The issue of deletion of votes in Delhi was raised in Parliament by Singh earlier this week. Nadda claimed the names of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are being removed from the voters' list following the process laid down in the Constitution and asked the AAP if it was wining with their votes.
Singh claimed that BJP workers had submitted applications to delete the names of Hindu voters under false pretences of labelling them as “Rohingyas†and “Bangladeshi infiltratorsâ€.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva called Arvind Kejriwal an expert at ‘changing both his face and his statements’ according to the situation. “Today, he is trying to show himself as a supporter of Purvanchal’s people, but they have not forgotten his
statement of September 30, 2019, when he said, ‘Biharis come to Delhi with a 500-rupee ticket, get 5 lakh worth of free treatment, and leave’,†he said.
“People from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Haryana have not forgotten that Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly stated that Delhi’s border hospitals and schools are under heavy pressure from outsiders,†he added.
