AAP and left parties accuse CEC of BJP‑favoured voter deletion scheme

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of running a "vote chori" scheme that favoured the BJP, and called for his immediate arrest. Kejriwal said the deletion of voters through the SIR (Specific ID Removal) process, approved despite objections from other Election Commissioners, is the biggest scam in independent India. He demanded that all elections held in Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Haryana in recent years be cancelled and rerun. The Aam Aadmi Party and left parties CPI(M) and CPI echoed the charge, saying the SIR approvals undermine the Election Commission’s integrity. CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Brittas wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, noting that more than 13 crore names have been struck off draft rolls in 30 states and union territories, and that over 33 lakh Delhi voters received notices. Brittas asked the president to intervene, urged the Union Government to seek a Supreme Court order to annul unlawful SIR actions, and called for the removal of Kumar from the CEC post. CPI General Secretary D Raja called the episode a grave crisis and described the CEC as the face of an electoral purge, demanding his resignation to restore public trust. Both parties labelled the episode as evidence of BJP’s hold over the Election Commission and warned that the alleged vote‑scrubbing could tilt future polls.