Addressing a press conference, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged large-scale vote theft, claiming that in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, 6,018 voter names were found to have been deleted.
Stepping up his offensive against the Election Commission of India (ECI), senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged the mass deletion of voters from Congress strongholds in Karnataka during the 2023 Assembly election. These voter IDs, he alleged, were deleted using fake logins and phone numbers from outside the state. He also alleged that this alleged voter deletion was being executed not by individuals, but with the use of centralised software.
Addressing a press conference at the Indira Bhawan Auditorium, Rahul Gandhi alleged large-scale vote theft, claiming that in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, 6,018 voter names were found to have been deleted, and the fraud was exposed only by chance when a booth-level officer discovered that even her own uncle’s vote had been removed from the rolls.
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Rahul Gandhi also made a claim about CEC Gyanesh Kumar and said, “CEC is protecting the people who have destroyed Indian democracy.”
"This is I am saying with solid proof," the leader of opposition said. Aland is a constituency in Karnataka, and somebody tried to delete 6,018 votes there, he claimed.
Rahul Gandhi flags 6,018 deletions in Aland
Rahul Gandhi said, "Aland is a constituency in Karnataka. Somebody tried to delete 6018 votes. We don't know the total number of votes that were deleted in Aland in the 2023 election. They are much higher than 6,018, but somebody got caught deleting those 6018 votes, and it was caught by coincidence. What happened was that the booth-level officer there noted that her uncle's vote was deleted, so she checked who deleted her uncle's vote, and she found that it was a neighbour who deleted the vote.
She asked her neighbour, but they said I did not delete any vote. Neither the person deleting the vote nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote..."
Rahul Gandhi claimed that in Karnataka's Aland assembly constituency, 6,018 deletion applications were filed by impersonators to target Congress voters. This deletion of votes was done in "centralised manner" using software and not through individuals, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha further said, adding that "targeted deletion" of votes was done in Congress stronghold through planned action.
Gandhi also said that Karnataka CID has started investigation seeking details from Election Commission on deletions done, but EC is not providing details. He urged, "Gyanesh Kumar ji, do your job, and you have taken an oath. Give the details to the Karnataka CID."
The press conference comes 40 days after Rahul raised questions on the electoral outcome of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat, claiming that there was “chori” (stealing) of one lakh votes in Mahadevapura assembly seat during the 2024 polls. He had then claimed that the EC was colluding with the BJP, which he called a “crime” against the Constitution.
