New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, September 18, accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting “vote chors” and people who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.
The Election Commission must stop this and provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions, Gandhi said at a press conference at the Congress’s Indira Bhawan headquarters here.
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said his revelations today were another milestone in demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged.
He also made it clear at the outset that these were not the “hydrogen bomb” of revelations that he had promised, and those will come soon.
Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from Karnataka’s Aland constituency in 2023. He also cited the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software.
“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,” the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged.
Someone has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India, he claimed.
“I am the Leader of Opposition and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof,” Gandhi said.
In Karnataka’s Aland, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence, he said, alleging that the names of voters of the Congress 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. 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 whose name was used to get the deletion done. Both denied any knowledge of the same.
He said these deletions were being done using a software.
Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Gandhi said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission and has asked for some very 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 Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who are doing this.
“EC 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 said.
Addressing the concluding event of his Voter Adhikar Yatra on September 1, Gandhi had said his party will soon come out with a “hydrogen bomb” of revelations about “vote chori” and after that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to show his face to the country.
Last month, Gandhi, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, claimed that over one lakh votes were “stolen” through manipulation in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka, and asserted that “vote chori” is an “atom bomb on our democracy”.
EC’s response to Gandhi’s allegations
The Election Commission dubbed as incorrect and baseless the allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting “vote chors”.
No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person, the EC asserted.
“Allegations made by Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi,” it said.
Later, after the EC’s response to his allegations, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post on X, “After our Aland candidate exposed the fraud, the local EC official filed an FIR, but the CID investigation has been — BLOCKED by CEC. The Karnataka CID has written 18 letters in 18 months requesting all incriminating evidence — BLOCKED by CEC.”
“The Karnataka EC has sent multiple requests to ECI to comply with the investigation — BLOCKED by CEC. Details of destination IP, device ports, and OTP trails have been withheld — BLOCKED by CEC,” he alleged.
If this vote theft was not caught and the 6,018 votes were deleted, the Congress candidate could have lost the election, Gandhi argued.
“CEC Gyanesh Kumar — stop giving excuses. Release the evidence to the Karnataka CID. NOW,” the former Congress chief said.
(This copy has been updated with a new feature photo ECI’s response)
