AAP leaders sits outside Election Commission office, Protesting AAP call center raid

Aam Aam Party leaders, led by Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, squatted outside the Election Commission office on Friday protesting against the alleged raids at the party’s call centers.

A delegation of AAP met the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora to lodge a complaint against the Delhi Police which, it claimed, was acting at the BJP’s behest to harass the call centre employees. Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Atishi were among AAP leaders who were part of the sit-in outside the poll panel’s office.

A BJP team had held a meeting with the CEC and alleged that the AAP was making “misleading” phone calls about the Delhi’s electoral rolls.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to air his grievances. He alleged that the police raided the call centres without any search warrants and was interrogating the employees. “Why is CEC raiding our call centres and asking for our data? What is our crime? Pl tell our crime at least,” he tweeted.

On Tuesday, AAP had alleged that the BJP was using Delhi Police to harass people appointed by the party for campaigning through telephone calls. Both the BJP and Delhi Police refuted the allegations.

Delhi Police had said that some people were questioned in the case but said it was part of the investigation. “How can that be called harassment?” said additional PRO of Delhi Police Anil Mittal.

AAP had last year claimed that names of voters had mysteriously disappeared from the electoral rolls over a period of four years. The Election Commission had refuted the claim and the deletion was because of due process carried under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.

In February this year, the poll panel lodged a complaint againt AAP alleging that in the party’s telephonic ads Delhiites were being told about 30 lakh deleted votes.