The chief electoral officer of Delhi is scheduled to meet senior Aam Aadmi Party leaders on Saturday after the party accused the Election Commission’s presiding officers in the South Delhi parliamentary seat of manipulating polling diaries after the national capital voted on May 12, Hindustan Times reported. The diaries are used to note activity at every booth every hour on polling day.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said on Friday that the party had received “credible information” about the alleged poll-code violation. The party’s South Delhi candidate Raghav Chadha had alleged that the Election Commission was summoning presiding officers and asking them to “re-create” and “re-sign” documents related to electronic voting machines. However, the two AAP leaders did not substantiate their allegations with evidence.

South Delhi Returning Officer Nidhi Srivastav said the Election Commission had not called any officials from the constituency, The Hindu reported. She said Chadha was spreading misinformation.

Advertisement

The election official said polling agents of political parties sign the document that contains information such as the number of people who voted, number of electors, number of votes not recorded, number of voters not allowed to vote, and the votes recorded by the voting machine. This document is sealed in the strongroom, which has three levels of security, along with the voting machine. “Hence there is no chance of manipulation,” she said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led party of levelling such allegations ahead of its impending defeat in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. “Apprehensive of their defeat, AAP leaders are raising questions against the EC,” said Pratyush Kanth, who handles media affairs for the BJP’s Delhi unit. “Now there is no option for AAP but to mislead the people of Delhi after failing to regain its public support.”