Raijor Dal president and Independent MLA from Assam's Sivasagar Akhil Gogoi on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of hatching a conspiracy to remove the names of lakhs of anti-party voters from electoral rolls.
Gogoi claimed that a plan has been hatched to remove the names of approximately 10,000 voters from each Assembly constituency under the direction of state BJP president Dilip Saikia, which the latter called "baseless".
Gogoi had alleged that this alleged plan was discussed during a virtual meeting of the BJP on the evening of January 4, which he overheard. "The meeting emphasised the strict implementation of the Special Revision process, and district and mandal level functionaries were instructed to prepare a list of voters who do not vote for the BJP," Gogoi added.
Gogoi further alleged that Assam minister Ashok Singhal has been entrusted with the responsibility of removing the names of eligible voters in 60 Assembly constituencies, and that government booth-level officers (BLOs) are also involved in this process along with BJP functionaries.
BJP hit back at Akhil Gogoi and the Opposition, alleging that a similar uproar was raised when the BJP emerged victorious in Bihar. "There is no truth in Gogoi's allegations, we did not ask to cut anyone's name. We instructed our workers to oversee the claims and objections process (during special revision exercise) so that geniune voted are not missed out. They raised similar vote chori allegations ahead of Bihar elections," Saikia told NDTV.
He added that the Opposition was first questioning the voter roll revision exercise and is now making "wild allegations against the BJP".
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