NEW DELHI: Accusing BJP national president JP Nadda of equating Purvanchalis with Rohingya and Bangladeshis and admitting to the deletion of their votes in the capital ahead of the assembly polls, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the party workers would go door to door to tell the community of the “conspiracy” of the saffron party. Kejriwal said senior AAP functionary Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha member and a Purvanchali face of the party, would undertake “ratri pravas” (night stays) in Purvanchali-dominated areas of the city to expose the “BJP’s conspiracy”.
“BJP president JP Nadda openly admitted in Parliament to the deletion of names of Purvanchalis, Rohingya and Bangladeshis. The Purvanchalis are being called Rohingya. How can those who came from UP and Bihar to Delhi and were settled here for 30-40 years be called Rohingya or Bangladeshi?” Kejriwal questioned.
The ex-CM urged the people of the Purvanchali community not to show their voter cards to anyone and alleged that BJP members might collect the information to remove their names from the electoral roll.
Kejriwal said his party workers would show the video of Nadda’s comment in Parliament to “expose” BJP. “We will not let BJP succeed in its plan to marginalise the Purvanchali community,” he added.
Nadda claimed in Rajya Sabha earlier this week that the names of Bangladeshis and Rohingya were being removed from the voters’ list following the process laid down in the Constitution and asked AAP if it was winning with their votes.
The issue of deletion of votes in Delhi was raised in Parliament by Singh earlier this week. Singh claimed that BJP workers submitted applications to delete the names of Hindu voters under false pretences of labelling them as “Rohingya” and “Bangladeshi infiltrators”.
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva alleged that Kejriwal was an expert at changing his statements according to the situation. “As soon as he realised that he was politically cornered and his support for Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators became a public issue, leading him to lose the trust of the people of Delhi, he started supporting Congress’s agenda,” he said.
Sachdeva further claimed that Kejriwal made an issue that Delhi’s healthcare services were under pressure due to people coming for treatment from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana and imposed a ban on it.
“After strong opposition from BJP, LG had to revoke the ban. It is because of the corruption in cleaning the Yamuna that people from Purvanchal cannot perform their traditional Chhath Puja by the riverside in Delhi,” the Delhi BJP chief alleged.
