Rahul's Allegations on Vote Theft Baseless: EC

 New Delhi: The clash between the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Election Commission of India (ECI) escalated on Thursday with the former accusing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy” as he cited data from Karnataka’s Aland assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

The poll body dismissed Rahul's allegations as incorrect and baseless, adding no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public. The Karnataka election officials said they have lodged an FIR in the incident and are cooperating with the police in this matter.

This was the second “bomb” hurled by Rahul Gandhi after the LoP made allegations on ECI last month. Rahul said more such revelations will be made by him in the coming days. “This is not the H-bomb. The H-bomb is coming. This is another milestone in setting up and demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged,” Rahul said on Thursday in a press conference.

“In election after election `Someone,’ some force, some group of people has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India. This is something that we have heard again, and again. Different communities, mainly communities that are voting for the opposition -- Dalits, Adivasis, Minorities, OBCs are specifically targeted. We had heard this many times and now we found 100 per cent proof of it. I am the Leader of the Opposition and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof,” Rahul said.

He accused CEC Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who indulged in "vote chori" and "destroyed democracy."

"I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly, I am the LoP. The CEC is protecting 'vote chors' and the people who have destroyed Indian democracy," Rahul alleged. He also called upon CEC to provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions. "Our demand is Gyanesh Kumar, do your job, you have taken an oath, you are India's chief election commissioner, you must give evidence to the Karnataka CID," Rahul said asking the ECI to provide the details within a week.

“If not, it will be known for sure that it is complicit in the "murder of the Constitution", Rahul alleged adding since the Constitutional institutions are not doing their job properly its time the institutions within the country including the legal framework should step in.

Giving details of the “vote chori’ Rahul said alleged attempts were made in Aland for targeted deletions of 6,018 votes in strong Congress booths in the run up to 2023 assembly polls. “The top 10 booths with maximum deletions were Congress strongholds. Congress won eight out of the 10 booths in 2018. This was not a coincidence; this was a planned operation," he alleged saying this was caught by co-incidence when a Booth Level Officer (BLO) found her uncle’s name deleted by a neighbour.

"The BLO noticed that her uncle's vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted the vote of her uncle. She asked her neighbour who said he had no idea. It was found that some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote -- and as luck would have it got caught," Rahul said.

He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka. Rahul also called on stage an elector whose vote was sought to be deleted and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done, with both denying any knowledge of it.

According to the Congress leader, the deletions were being done using software and not through individuals, as the process of filling the form was done within seconds and was done in the wee hours of the day. He also gave the example of Maharashtra's Rajura constituency where he claimed 6,850 voters were added in a "fraudulent" manner using automated software.

"Same system is doing this. It is doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, it has done it in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and we have proof of it," the LoP alleged.

Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Rahul said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the ECI seeking answers for simple facts such as the destination IP from where these applications were filled and OTP trails.

“They are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted. EC knows who is doing this… When they are not giving this information, they are defending the murderers of democracy," Rahul said.

Rejecting LoPs allegations as “incorrect and baseless” the ECI said no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public. “No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person. In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of electors in Aland Assembly Constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter. As per records, Aland Assembly Constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023,” ECI said.

Responding to Rahul’s allegations, the Chief Election Officer of Karnataka said the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Aland received 6,018 applications in Form 7 which were submitted online using various apps such as NVSP, VHA, GARUDA apps during December 2022. Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications submitted online for deletion of electors' names in the constituency, verification of each application was conducted by election officers during which only 24 applications were found to be genuine and 5,994 were found to be incorrect. Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and names were not deleted.

“Based on the inquiry findings by BLOs, ERO lodged an FIR with the Inspector of Police, Aland Police Station, Kalaburagi on 21.02.2023. The CEO Karnataka has handed over to Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district on 06.09.2023 all the available information with ECI for completing the investigation. The shared information includes Objector's details, including Form Reference Number, name of the Objector, his EPIC number and mobile number used for log-in and mobile number provided by the

Objector for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, form submission date and time, and user creation date,” Karnataka top poll official said.

“After providing the requested information, meetings were also conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka with the Investigating Officer and Cyber Security experts of the Police to review the progress of the investigation. CEO, Karnataka has already been providing any other assistance/information/documents to the investigating agency,” Karnataka CEO added.

The Congress leader said more “reports” are coming and it will take two-three months for the research and presentations on alleged "vote chori" that his party has been carrying out to reveal how assembly and Lok Sabha polls are being allegedly rigged. He added that in its endeavour the Congress is also getting information and help from people inside the Election Commission.