Rahul Gandhi sharpens attack on EC; claims baseless says poll body

Rahul Gandhi alleges the Election Commission obstructed the Karnataka CID probe into an organised attempt to delete votes using automated software and says targeted deletions hit Aland

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission (EC) of blocking the Karnataka CID's probe into the alleged “organised attempt using an automated software” to delete votes in the state’s Aland constituency during the 2023 Assembly elections. 

The EC dubbed Gandhi’s allegations as “incorrect and baseless”, and asserted that no voter deletions can take place without giving an opportunity to the affected voter to be heard. It said that no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public “as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi”. 

At a press conference held an hour after Gandhi’s concluded, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Anurag Thakur claimed that Gandhi's repeated allegations against constitutional institutions such as the EC showed his lack of faith in democracy. Thakur accused him of trying to stoke chaos and create in India the kind of unrest seen in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Thakur said Gandhi, in the garb of protecting the interests of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), is trying to shield “infiltrators”. 

Later in the day, the Karnataka EC posted on X that its officials received 6,018 applications for deletion of votes, found it suspicious and verified each application. Only 24 applications for voter deletions were found to be genuine, and another 5,994 were found to be incorrect. 

Based on these findings, EC officials lodged an FIR in the local police station on February 21. Also, Karnataka’s chief electoral officer shared all the information available with the EC with the police on September 6, 2023. 

The Karnataka state EC said the chief electoral officer has already been providing assistance, information and documents to the investigating agency. 

Earlier in the day, Gandhi alleged that the EC has frustrated the Karnataka CID’s probe by refusing to release data, and termed the poll body’s response to his allegations as "excuses". 

He urged the EC to provide the information sought. Referring to the attempt of voter deletions in Aland, Gandhi claimed that voters of SCs, STs, minorities and OBCs, who support the Congress, were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

Gandhi’s argument is based on  Congress’ Aland legislator BR Patil, who in the run up to the election campaigning for the 2023 Assembly polls, was alerted to the attempt to delete 6,018 votes in his constituency.

 

Talking about the Aland example, Gandhi said there were targeted deletions in strong Congress booths. “The top 10 booths with maximum deletions (in 2023) were Congress strongholds. Congress won eight of the 10 booths in 2018. This was not a coincidence; this was a planned operation," he alleged. Gandhi said the attempt to delete 6,018 votes was caught "by coincidence" when the “booth-level officer noticed that her uncle's vote got deleted and found that 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, Gandhi said. 

He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka. 

Gandhi also called on stage a voter whose vote was attempted to be deleted and the person's name was used to get the deletion done without his  knowledge.

 

According to the Congress leader, the deletions were being done using software. 

Gandhi also gave the example of Maharashtra's Rajura constituency where he claimed 6,850 voters were added in a "fraudulent" manner using automated software. "The same system is doing this in Karnataka and Maharashtra, it has done it in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and we have proof of it," Gandhi said. 

Gandhi said the Karnataka CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the EC and asked for some 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, Gandhi claimed. He accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who are doing this. 

 

"When we are done with these presentations, you will have no doubt in your mind that state after state (elections) and Lok Sabha after Lok Sabha are being stolen. My job is to lay bare the truth and show it to the people of the country," Gandhi said. He also claimed that the party is getting information and help from inside the EC.

 

Gandhi said he will put that before the people and his "hydrogen bomb" of revelations will put everything out in black and white.

 

Last month, Gandhi, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, claimed that over 100,000 votes were "stolen" through manipulation in Mahadevapura assembly segment of Karnataka.

 

He asserted that "vote chori" is an "atom bomb on our democracy."