CEC Shields Vote Thieves, Deleting Congress Voters

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that there was a concerted attempt to delete the names of over 6,000 voters in Karnataka’s Aland constituency during the 2023 Assembly elections, which the party had prevented.

He said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had lodged a complaint over the deletion bid based on the Congress contestant’s representation, but was refusing to provide details to the Karnataka police who were investigating the case. He claimed that the ECI had ignored 18 requests for information from the Karnataka CID that was probing the matter.

Gandhi during a press conference here accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy.” He also said: “This is not the H-bomb. The H-bomb is coming. This is another milestone in demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged.”

The poll body dismissed the allegations as “incorrect and baseless,” reiterating that no vote could be deleted online by any member of the public. It also said that the details of the case had been shared with the Kalaburagi superintendent of police. The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said the FIR in connection with the case was lodged by the electoral registration officers (EROs) concerned.

In Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah demanded that the ECI immediately hand over the technical details of the attempted voter deletion in Aland — IP logs, device ports, and OTP trails — within a week. “Failure to do so will expose the commission as complicit in shielding those trying to destroy democracy,” he warned.

Gandhi alleged that in election after election, communities largely voting for the Opposition, Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, and OBCs, were systematically targeted for deletion. “We have heard this many times, and now we have 100 per cent proof. I am the Leader of the Opposition, and I will not make any statement that is not backed by proof,” he said.

The Congress leader accused the CEC of shielding those responsible for “vote chori.” He demanded that within a week, the ECI provide information sought by the Karnataka CID in its investigation into voter deletions. “Our demand is simple: Gyanesh Kumar, do your job. You have taken an oath as India’s Chief Election Commissioner. Provide the evidence to the Karnataka CID,” he said, warning that failure to do so would show the ECI’s complicity in the “murder of the Constitution.”

Gandhi called on stage a voter whose vote was sought to be deleted and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done. Both of them denied any knowledge of the deletion attempt.

Detailing the Aland case, he claimed that 6,018 votes in strong Congress booths were targeted for deletion ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. “The top 10 booths with the maximum deletions were Congress strongholds. The Congress had won eight of these in 2018. This was not a coincidence but a planned operation,” he said.

He noted the matter was discovered when a booth level officer (BLO) noticed that her uncle’s vote had been deleted. She found that the deletion was on the basis of a complaint allegedly by her neighbour. When she inquired with the neighbour, he denied having asked for the voter deletion.

According to Gandhi, 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, with forms submitted automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka. He alleged that software was used to execute the deletions within seconds during early morning hours. He also cited Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, where he claimed 6,850 voters were added “fraudulently” using similar methods.

“There is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka. The CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the ECI seeking simple details such as IP addresses and OTP trails. The ECI refuses to share this information because it will reveal where this operation is being run. When they withhold such information, they are defending the murderers of democracy,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Rejecting these charges, the ECI said: “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 ECI itself to investigate the matter. As per records, Aland Assembly constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and B.R. Patil (INC) in 2023.”

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka explained that the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Aland had received 6,018 Form-7 applications for deletion of voters’ names via NVSP, VHA, and GARUDA apps in December 2022. Upon verification, only 24 applications were found genuine, while 5,994 were rejected.

“Following this, an FIR was lodged with Aland police in February 2023, and all details, including form references, objectors’ details, EPIC numbers, mobile numbers, IP addresses, submission times, and application mediums, were shared with the investigating agency. The CEO added that meetings with cyber experts had been held to review progress and that the Election Commission was providing full cooperation to the investigation,” the Karnataka CEO said.

Gandhi said the Congress would continue gathering evidence over the next two to three months and release further reports on “vote chori.” He added that the party was also receiving inputs from “people inside the Election Commission.”

This was the second major allegation by Rahul Gandhi against the ECI in recent weeks, following the allegation that over one lakh votes had been added to the Mahadevpura Assembly segment of Bangalore North Lok Sabha constituency, resulting in the defeat of the party candidate though the Congress won six other segments of the seat.