New Delhi [India], February 2 : AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, alleging that his party workers in the New Delhi Assembly constituency are being intimidated and harassed by BJP workers in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.
In his letter, Kejriwal said, "I am writing to express my grave concern over the intimidation and harassment being meted out to our grass-root volunteers in the New Delhi Assembly Constituency at the hands of BJP workers and Delhi Police in the run-up to election day."
Notably, Kejriwal is up against Congress's Sandeep Dikshit and BJP's Parvesh Verma from the New Delhi assembly constituency.
Kejriwal expressed grave concern over the treatment of AAP's grassroots volunteers, citing instances of unlawful detention, physical abuse, and wrongful booking under various sections.
"Yesterday, our senior volunteer Chetan (Resident of Princess Park Part-2) was unlawfully detained and booked under section 126 of BNSS, 2023 at Tilak Marg Police Station, on the baseless and fictitious grounds that he has previous cases registered against him, while there are none. He was brazenly charged with actions that he had never committed. He was also subjected to severe physical abuse by the Police officials to the point that he fainted and was subsequently rushed to Lady Harding Hospital. Later on, after a lot of struggle, he was produced before the Return Officer/ SDM concerned and granted bail, in a matter in which he was brazenly framed," the AAP Chief said in his letter.
Kejriwal also claimed that the Delhi Police are targeting AAP volunteers, arbitrarily detaining, questioning, and harassing them. He believes this is a systematic effort to suppress AAP's campaign and discourage volunteers from participating in election-related activities.
"Moreover, what is more, disturbing is that even the Delhi Police is targeting our volunteers by arbitrarily detaining, questioning, and harassing them, some are even wrongfully booked under various sections of BNS. We are witnessing a systematic effort to suppress our party's grassroots-level workers through unlawful detentions and threats, allegedly at the behest of the BJP, to discourage them from participating in election-related activities. These actions appear to be a deliberate strategy to undermine and suppress our party's campaign," he said.
"Given the current scenario, we fear that on the night before the election and the morning of the election day, these intimidation tactics may escalate further to prevent our volunteers from working on polling day thereby disrupting our party's election operations," Kejriwal added further.
To address these concerns, Kejriwal demanded, the deployment of independent observers to ensure fair elections, protection for AAP volunteers from intimidation and harassment, accountability for misuse of police powers to prevent arbitrary detentions and harassment and strict action against BJP workers involved in violence to maintain law and order.
"These orchestrated attacks on our volunteers are a direct assault on the democratic process and must be addressed immediately to safeguard the integrity of the elections," Kejriwal said in his letter.
The Delhi Assembly elections are scheduled to take place on February 5, while counting of votes will be held on February 8.