A morphed letter has surfaced with false claims that former Delhi chief minister and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls requesting special facilities for Muslim voters to felicitate their voting.
BOOM was able to confirm that the letter was edited. We reached out to AAP's chief media coordinator, Vikas Yogi, who confirmed that Kejriwal did not write any such letter to the ECI. Further, an Election Commission official confirmed to BOOM that no such letter was received by them.
The AAP conceded defeat in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With a margin of more than 4,000 votes, Kejriwal was defeated by BJP's Parvesh Sahib Singh, setting the stage for a thumping comeback of the BJP in Delhi after more than 26 years.
In the viral undated letter, Arvind Kejriwal purportedly addressed BC Patra of the Election Commission of India, stating that Muslim voters are discriminated against by 'Hindus and other religious groups'. The letter also claimed that Kejriwal requested the ECI to provide a 'pick and drop' facility for Muslim voters from home on polling day, exempt them from physical ID checks and extend voting hours exclusively for Muslims from 5 pm to 8 pm during the Delhi assembly elections.
The photo is being shared with the caption: "Read this note from Arvind Kejriwal to Election Commissioner of India for preferential treatment for the minorities to facilitate their voting."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive. BOOM also received the letter on its Tipline for verification.
Fact Check
BOOM first observed that the letter carries the serial number 'NCO/25/10' but does not include a date. Following this lead, we went through AAP's official social media handle and found the original letter with the same serial number. The original letter was addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 19, 2025.
In the letter, Kejriwal urged the Prime Minister to allocate land for constructing houses for government employees, particularly sanitation workers, as land in the national capital falls under the central government's jurisdiction.
Click here to view the X post and here for an archive.
When compared with the original letter, we found that the date was erased in the viral version. We also noticed that the viral letter carries a signature attributed to Kejriwal at the bottom left, while the original one has a masked signature of Kejriwal at the bottom right.
The comparison of both the letterheads is shown below.
For further clarification, we reached out to AAP's chief media coordinator, Vikas Yogi, who refuted the viral letter, stating that Arvind Kejriwal did not write such a letter to the Election Commission of India. Yogi told BOOM, "No, it was not written by Kejriwal. The letter is fake." We also reached out to an EC official, who confirmed that the letter is fake, and no such document was received by the commission.
With inputs from Rohit Kumar
