Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 7: The Delhi Anti-Corruption Bureau police have served a notice to the former chief minister and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal to substantiate his allegations that the BJP was trying to poach the expected winners of the Assembly elections when the votes are counted on Saturday.
The ACB launched the probe at the behest of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena who received complaints from the BJP leaders about Mr Kejriwal and other AAP leaders accusing the saffron party of offering Rs 15 crores each to 16 AAP candidates for shifting sides.
The ACB team also visited the residences of Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, and Mukesh Ahlawat on Friday to seek proof of their allegations on the eve of the declaration of results in the Assembly polls. Mr Kejriwal and other AAP leaders had alleged that the BJP was offering Rs 15 crores to its MLAs to jump ship as the results of the Assembly polls are scheduled to be declared on Saturday.
“Some agencies are showing that the abusive party is getting more than 55 seats. In the last two hours, our 16 candidates have received calls saying, “Leave AAP and join our party, we’ll make you ministers and give each of you Rs 15-15 crore,” Kejriwal had posted on X on Thursday, a day after BJP was projected by the Exit Polls to return to power in Delhi after 27 years.
His comments were backed by party leader Mukesh Ahlawat who said he would “rather die” than leave Kejriwal’s side. The Delhi L-G Office reacted to the allegations and recommended an ACB probe into the massive charges.
The L-G Office said it received a representation from Delhi BJP on the poaching charges, alleging that allegations were levelled with an intent to “tarnish the image of BJP and create panic and situation of unrest in Delhi immediately after conclusion of polling.” “Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor has desired that this matter merits a thorough investigation through the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to establish the truth in the matter,” the office said.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi BJP General Secretary Vishnu Mittal wrote to L-G seeking his direction to ACB or any other investigating agency to register an FIR against Kejriwal and conduct a probe into the poaching allegations. “It is requested that Arvind Kejriwal & Sanjay Singh be summoned and detailed enquiry be done with regard to the details of the person who contacted MLAs and the mode and medium of contact et al. needs to be investigated to unearth the truth,” the letter read.
Mr Kejriwal on Friday also alleged the Election Commission refused to upload data on the number of votes polled in each assembly constituency in Delhi held on Wednesday despite several requests. “EC has refused to upload Form 17C and number of votes polled per booth in each assembly despite several requests. AAP has made a website transparent elections.in where we have uploaded all the form 17C of every assembly. This form has all the details of votes polled in each booth,” Mr Kejriwal said in a post on X.
“Through the day, we will present the data of every assembly and every booth in a tabulated format as well so that every voter can access this information. This is something that the Election Commission should have done in the interest of transparency, but it is unfortunate that they are refusing to do it,” the former Delhi chief minister said.
Form 17C is mentioned in the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 (Election Rules), and has two parts – total number of votes recorded on polling day and other details, and number of votes for each candidate, which will help record the election results. Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 60.42 per cent on Wednesday.
AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party was confident of winning at least 50 seats, based on estimates given by AAP candidates from their ground reports. This number is much lower than the near-complete sweep the AAP performed in the last Delhi election.
The AAP is looking for a third consecutive win in the national capital but most of the exit polls give advantage to the BJP to be likely to return to power in the national capital after 27 years.
