Alleging that BJP East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir has two voter IDs in different addresses in the Capital, AAP on Friday said it has filed a criminal complaint against him at a local court here.
“We will also approach the Election Commission to cancel his candidature,” said AAP East Delhi candidate Atishi while addressing a press conference at the party office.
She said it is a criminal offence to have two voter ID cards. “It is punishable with one year in prison. I filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Gambhir at a Tis Hazari Court on Thursday. We have urged the Magistrate to direct the police to register an FIR against the BJP candidate,” Ms. Atishi added.
“Voters shud not waste their vote on someone who will get disqualified soon [sic],” tweeted AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
‘Baseless allegations’
Responding to the allegations, Delhi BJP media in-charge Pratyush Kanth, said: “All these are baseless allegations. Mr. Gambhir’s paperwork is in order and there is no discrepancy. We understand the frustration of AAP. It has no issues on the basis of which it can successfully seek votes in the election and hence it is relying on such frivolous allegations.”
BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana tweeted: “Can u pls explain @ArvindKejriwal ji why ur wife Sunita Kejriwal is having 3 voter ids with her ? 1 from Delhi , 1 from UP and 1 from Bengal . Before pointing finger on other first u should come clean [sic].”
At the press conference, AAP spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said Mr. Gambhir’s candidature would be cancelled and his covering candidate can now fight the election.
Ms. Atishi said that Mr. Gambhir, in his affidavit submitted at the time of nomination, had mentioned that he is a registered voter in Rajinder Nagar and they later found out that he was also a registered voter in Karol Bagh.
‘One-year imprisonment’
According to Section 17 of the Representation of the People Act, a person cannot have voter cards and, as per Section 31, there is a provision of one-year imprisonment for giving incorrect information in the nomination papers, she added.
Earlier this week, AAP’s South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha and Ms. Atishi had raised objections against papers filed by Mr. Gambhir but these were rejected. In a letter to Returning Officer Nidhi Srivastava, Mr. Chadha had also raised six objections to BJP’s candidate Ramesh Bhiduri’s nomination papers but these also were rejected.
The allegations included the omission of a pending criminal case registered against Mr. Bhiduri in Bihar and alleged false declaration regarding his total income.
