Ramping up his attack on the issue of vote theft, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who “destroyed democracy”. To buttress his allegation, he cited data from a Karnataka assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted.
In his fresh offensive against EC, Gandhi, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, said the poll panel must stop protecting “vote chors” and provide within a week information sought by Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions.
If not, it will be known for sure that it is complicit in the “murder of the Constitution”, Gandhi alleged at a press conference at the Congress’ Indira Bhawan headquarters here.
Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete 6,018 votes in Karnataka’s Aland constituency in the run up to 2023 assembly polls. He also gave the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency where he claimed 6,850 voters were added in a “fraudulent” manner using automated software.
“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,” Gandhi said. He also asked the CEC to “stop giving excuses”.
EC says allegations ‘incorrect & baseless’
Election Commission Thursday dubbed as incorrect and baseless the allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting “vote chors”.
No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity to be heard to the affected person, the EC asserted. It highlighted that unsuccessful attempts were made, and an FIR was lodged and relevant details shared with the state CID.
EC pointed out that in 2023, “certain unsuccessful attempts” were made for deletion of electors in Aland Assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of the EC itself to investigate the matter. “As per records, Aland AC was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023,” it noted.