Rahul Gandhi during the press conference on September 18.
Credit: Screen grab/Rahul Gandhi/Youtube
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference on Wednesday, September 18, accused the ruling BJP and the Election Commission of orchestrating what he has been calling as “vote chori” (vote theft).
Branding his revelations as a “hydrogen bomb” against the Modi government, Gandhi claimed that systematic voter deletions and manipulation of electoral rolls were being carried out to undermine democracy. He also accused the Election Commission of "protecting those who are destroying India's democracy'.
Here are the key points from his address:
Systematic deletion of voter names
Rahul Gandhi alleged that thousands of voter names are being deliberately removed from electoral rolls across constituencies to weaken the Congress party’s base. He called the exercise “targeted and planned,” claiming that it disproportionately affects communities and groups seen as Congress supporters.
Use of software and fake applications
According to Gandhi, this voter deletion drive is not random but facilitated by technology. He alleged that special software, combined with fake login IDs and applications, is being used to tamper with electoral data. This, he said, points to an organised attempt at “vote theft” rather than clerical errors or routine corrections.
Evidence from Karnataka's Aland constituency
Backing his charge with specifics, Gandhi pointed to the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka, where he claimed that over 6,000 votes were deleted through fake logins. Gandhi said that there are more deletions but only the incident where about 6,018 votes were deleted got caught. He suggested this was just one example of a wider operation and that the Congress would be releasing more data to substantiate its claim.
Sharp attack on the Election Commission
The Congress leader did not hold back in his criticism of the Election Commission, particularly Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. He accused the poll body of shielding those undermining democracy and said it had transformed into a “destroyer of democracy” instead of being a neutral constitutional authority.
The ‘Hydrogen Bomb’ claim
In the run-up to the press meet, Gandhi had promised that the Congress would drop a “hydrogen bomb” of revelations. Reiterating that phrase, he said the scale of the alleged voter manipulation was so grave that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would struggle to “show his face to the country” once the truth was fully exposed.
EC blocking access to CID Karnataka
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.