Rahul Gandhi mounts fresh ‘vote chori’ charges, accuses CEC Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those ‘killing democracy’

Gandhi also said his revelations were another milestone in demonstrating to the youth of this country how the elections are being influenced. At the start of the press briefing, he said these were not part of the “hydrogen bomb” of revelations that he has promised, and which he said will come soon.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s press conference, the Election Commission termed the allegations “incorrect and baseless”.

“No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Shri Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person. In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletions in the Aland Assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of the 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,” the EC statement said.

In August, Gandhi accused the poll body and the BJP of having perpetrated “a huge criminal fraud” in elections, and released what he said were findings of an investigation carried out by the Congress in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, a part of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.

From Aland in Karnataka to Maharashtra’s Rajura

The Congress leader showed data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency – Aland – to claim that the votes of Congress supporters from booths with a strong Congress presence were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

He also cited an ongoing investigation by the Karnataka Police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), and said the ECI must provide within a week information sought by the probe agency in the southern state, which is looking into voter deletions.

Gandhi showed details of the deletion of votes from Karnataka’s Aland constituency in 2023, and also cited the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software. He said there were 6,850 fake online additions in the Rajura Assembly seat.

“I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly. The CEC is protecting vote chors and the people who have destroyed Indian democracy. I am the Leader of Opposition and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof – black and white proof,” Gandhi said.

“In Karnataka’s Aland, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence,” said Gandhi. He said that the names of Congress voters were being deleted systematically.

“The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted the vote of her uncle. When 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,” Gandhi said.

He also said that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, and this filing was done automatically, with mobile numbers from outside Karnataka being used.

‘Election Commission knows’

During the press conference, Gandhi called a person whose vote was allegedly attempted to be deleted, as well as another whose name was used to facilitate the deletion using software. Both spoke on stage and denied any knowledge of the same. The local Congress candidate accompanied them.

Talking about an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Gandhi said the CID has sent 18 letters to the Election Commission in 18 months and has requested certain facts, such as the destination IP address from which these applications were filed, and OTP trails. “They (EC) are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted”.

“The Election Commission knows who is doing this. I want every youngster in India to know this. They are doing this to your future. When they are not giving this information, they are defending the murderers of democracy”.

Gandhi also said that the Congress had started “getting help from within the ECI”. “This won’t be stopped, and it can’t be stopped. People of the country won’t let this happen. Once people know vote chori, they won’t let it happen,” he added.