Rahul Gandhi’s allegations are “serious”, but he remained silent over similar discrepancies in Delhi: Saurabh Bharadwaj
NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Thursday backed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s fresh allegations of voter deletions, demanding answers from the Centre and Election Commission. However, Bharadwaj criticised Congress and Gandhi for “remaining silent” while similar discrepancies were highlighted by AAP during the Delhi Assembly elections in early 2025. Speaking to ANI, the AAP leader accused the Congress and Rahul Gandhi of still “remaining silent” on the issue, alleging that Congress only raises its voice for its own interests and not for opposition and democracy. “The issue raised by Rahul Gandhi is serious, and the Election Commission and the central government of the country should respond to it. He said that applications have been submitted to remove 6,000 votes in a seat in Karnataka. However, while he (Rahul Gandhi) is saying this today, Arvind Kejriwal said this in January 2025. We had pointed out that in Delhi’s New Delhi Assembly constituency, in a similar manner, applications were submitted to remove around 6,000 votes and add 10,500 new votes in just 15 days,” Saurabh Bharadwaj told ANI. “When the same thing was being said by an opposition party, and Congress itself was contesting elections there while the BJP was winning by stealing votes, Congress remained silent, and even today, Rahul Gandhi is silent. It feels as though you (Congress) only want to fight for your own party and not for the opposition, democracy,” he added. Earlier today, addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi claimed that there was an attempt to delete more than 6,000 voters’ names from the Aland constituency in Karnataka. “In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don’t know the total number of votes deleted in the 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught, by most crimes, by coincidence. What happened was that the booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote had been deleted,” he said. The Lok Sabha LoP further alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, is “protecting vote chors” and is fully aware of how fraud is happening in deleting and adding fake voters in the voter list.He stated that he has “10 percent proof” that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is “protecting vote chors (vote thieves).” He said that a group of people is using a centralized method through software, impersonating real voters, and deleting their names from the voter lists. Gandhi further claimed that he is “getting help” from people who are working for the Election Commission of India (ECI) in uncovering alleged vote fraud in the country. “We have started getting help from inside the Election Commission. I am making it clear that we are now getting information from inside the Election Commission; this was not happening before, but now we are getting information from inside the Election Commission, and this is not going to stop. India’s people will not accept this. Once the youth come to know that vote chori is happening, then their power will come,” Rahul Gandhi alleged.Responding to the claims, the ECI has called Rahul Gandhi’s allegations “baseless and incorrect”, highlighting that no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public. “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 Rahul Gandhi. No deleting can take place without giving an opportunity to be heard to the affected person,” the ECI said in a statement. The ECI also said that allegations made by Rahul Gandhi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar are baseless and incorrect. The poll body has said that in 2023, certain “unsuccessful attempts” were made to delete certain votes, and a complaint was filed on the order of the ECI itself. “In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in Aland Assembly Constituency, and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the poll body said.The ECI pointed out that the Congress leader BR Patil won the assembly elections from Aland in 2023, while the BJP’s Subadh Guttedar won in 2018. Go to Source
