Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi escalated his attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar hours after the poll body “fact-checked” the Congress leader’s new claims on his “vote chori” charge.Hitting back at Gyanesh Kumar, Rahul Gandhi accused the Election Commission chief of blocking the FIR and CID investigation into the alleged fraud in the Aland assembly constituency, which was won by a Congress candidate in the 2023 polls.”If this vote theft had not been caught and the 6,018 votes had been deleted, our candidate could have lost the election,” Rahul Gandhi said.He also asked Gyanesh Kumar to “stop giving excuses” and release the evidence to the Karnataka CID.”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. If this vote theft had not been caught and the 6,018 votes had been deleted, our candidate could have lost the election. CEC Gyanesh Kumar – stop giving excuses. Release the evidence to the Karnataka CID. NOW,” the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha wrote on X. The Election Commission of India on Thursday sharply rebutted Rahul Gandhi’s allegation of massive deletion of votes in Karnataka’s Aland, calling it “incorrect and baseless.”The poll body dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claim that over six thousand votes have been deleted in the Aland assembly constituency segment in Karnataka. EC made clear that “no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as conceived by Rahul Gandhi.”EC added that no deletion can take place “without giving an opportunity of being heard, to the affected person.”On Rahul Gandhi’s claim of the deletion of votes in Aland, EC raised that in 2013, unsuccessful attempts were made, but an FIR was filed to investigate the matter.It further cited records that mention “Aland AC was won by BJP’s Subhash Guttedar in 2018 and Congress’s B R Patil in 2023.”
