New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS): The exercise of deleting names of electors from their electoral roll pertaining to assembly constituencies of Delhi was done by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) without any influence by any political party or private agency, an Election Officer told a Delhi Court on Monday.

Testifying as a complainant witness, Election Officer Manoj Kumar told the court that the exercise of deletion was done by ERO on instruction of Election Commission.

Around four lakh names were deleted from the electoral roll between January 2018 and January 2019. Nearly two lakh new voters were added in the list in the last one year, Kumar told Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal.

Kumar submitted that, according to the final list published on January 18, there are 1,36,95,291 voters in the Delhi Assembly constituencies. He also told the court that there is no data of caste and community of the deleted voters.

Kumar's submission came while deposing as a witness in the defamation complaint against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal filed by BJP leader Rajeev Babbar.

Babbar has sought proceeding against Kejriwal, Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Gupta, MLA Manoj Kumar and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Atishi Malena for harming the reputation of BJP by blaming the party (BJP) for the deletion of the names of "voters" from the electoral rolls.

"All the accused made accusations against BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in a calculated manner with the sole intention to portray a negative image of BJP in relation to the voters belonging to certain sections of society viz., Bania, Poorvanchalis, Muslims etc. The reputation of the complainant has been damaged beyond repair," Babbar said.

The court has listed the matter for further hearing on February 28.