The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of voter list manipulation, calling them “incorrect and baseless.” The poll body stressed that votes cannot be deleted online, as suggested by Gandhi.
“No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity to be heard to the affected person,” the ECI said in a statement.
Responding to claims of deletions in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly constituency, the Election Commission clarified that it was the ECI itself that flagged anomalies there in 2023. “Certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in Aland and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” it said.
The Commission also underlined that Aland’s electoral record showed the seat was won by BJP’s Subhadh Guttedar in 2018 and by Congress’s BR Patil in 2023.
ECI sources further termed Gandhi’s remarks targeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar as “unfortunate,” noting that Kumar took charge only six months ago and cannot be held responsible for alleged irregularities reported last year.
Rahul Drops ‘H-Bomb’
Rahul attacked the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Gyanesh Kumar, over vote fraud. He said Kumar needs to stop protecting the people who are “destroying” Indian democracy. “We have given you 100% bulletproof proof here. EC has to release this data of these phones, these OTPs, within a week… In Rajura, Maharashtra, 6815 targeted voters were added. In Aland, we caught delitions, in Rajura, we got additions, but the basic idea is the same… It’s the same system that is doing this. It’s doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP, and we have proof of all that,” he said.
