Rahul accuses Chief Election Commissioner of stonewalling CID's request for info on Karnataka's Aland vote deletion

Gyanesh Kumar is protecting ‘vote chors’ and is complicit in the “murder of the Constitution', says Congress leader

New Delhi: Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday brought Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar under direct line of fire, accusing him of stonewalling Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) request for information held by the poll body that could help identify the culprits who sought illegal deletion of around 6,000 votes in Karnataka’s Aland constituency.

He demanded that destination IP addresses, device destination ports and OTP trails of phones used to apply for deletion of 6,018 voters be shared with the investigators “within a week” or else people will “know for sure” that there is “undeniable” proof that Kumar is “protecting the ‘vote chors’ (vote thieves)” and is complicit in the “murder of the Constitution”.

Addressing his second press conference on ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) theme here, Gandhi claimed that “someone” had set up a “centralised criminal operation” to steal elections through automated filing of online applications to delete names from electoral rolls.

As he emphasised that the details he was providing presently were not part of his promised “hydrogen bomb”-like expose on vote theft, he claimed that applications were filed fraudulently using the identity of existing voters and mobile numbers registered outside Karnataka. A similar modus operandi was used in Maharashtra's Rajura seat, where 6,850 “fake” names were added using “fake names and fake addresses”.

Election Commission terms claims 'incorrect and baseless'

The Election Commission described Gandhi's allegations as “incorrect and baseless” while insisting that no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as conceived by the leader. However, it admitted that “certain unsuccessful attempts” were made for the deletion of votes in Aland and subsequently an FIR was filed.

On the claims that the EC had not shared information despite the Karnataka CID and Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer repeatedly asking for it, the poll body said it has shared “all available” information with SP, Kalaburagi on 6 September, 2023. The Karnataka CID is claimed to have sought information for the past 18 months since March 2023 and the CEO seeking it last in March this year. Congress also released a letter dated September 9 by CID seeking information.

The Karnataka CID is claimed to have sought information for the past 18 months since March 2023 and the CEO seeking it last in March this year. Congress also released a letter dated September 9 by CID seeking information.

“I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly, I am the Leader of the Opposition…Our demand is Gyanesh Kumar, do your job, you have taken an oath, you are India's Chief Election Commissioner, you must give evidence to the Karnataka CID,” he said.

“We are showing with proof how deletion is being done in a centralised manner using a call centre. In Aland, Karnataka, we caught their theft. There, in one Assembly, someone deleted 6,018 votes, and it was caught by chance...In Rajura, it was an addition of votes," he said, adding this was “another example of 'vote chori' through deletion of votes”. 

He said it came to light after a booth-level officer there noted that her uncle's vote was deleted, and she found that it was a neighbour who applied for deleting that vote. "She asked the neighbour, who said he did not file any such application. Neither the person deleting the vote nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process,” Gandhi claimed.

Presenting one Suryakant, in whose name 12 applications for voter deletion were submitted in 14 minutes, along with Babita Choudhary, whose name was sought to be deleted, at the press conference, Gandhi said Suryakant did not have any idea about filing such applications. Suryakant said he did not send any message confirming his application and told Babita, too, that he had not done anything like that when she asked.

Gandhi also gave the example of one Godabai, in whose name logins were created to "delete" the names of 12 neighbours and the OTPs were sent to phone numbers registered outside Karnataka. He also said two applications for deletion were submitted in the name of one Nagaraj within a span of 36 seconds — between 4:07:40 and 4:08:16.

He claimed that the applicants ran a software which picked up the voter on serial number one in the electoral rolls in targeted polling stations. “It was pretty certain that it was done in a centralised manner, at call-centre level. The top 10 booths with maximum deletions were Congress strongholds. The Congress had won eight out of the 10 booths in 2018. This was no coincidence, this was a planned operation,” he said.