‘Baseless’: Election Commission Junks Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Chori’ Charge Against CEC

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s explosive “vote chori” allegations as “incorrect and baseless,” asserting that no voter can be deleted from the electoral rolls online by a member of the public . The poll body’s strong rebuttal came just hours after Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting “vote thieves” and presented what he claimed was “solid proof” of a systemic voter deletion scam .

In a press conference, Gandhi cited the example of Karnataka’s Aland constituency, alleging that 6,018 votes were sought to be deleted using a centralized software and fake applications . He claimed this was a “planned operation” targeting Congress strongholds .

However, the Election Commission clarified that while “unsuccessful attempts” to fraudulently delete voters were made in Aland in 2023, the poll body itself had filed an FIR to investigate the matter . The ECI also pointed out that the Congress party had, in fact, won the Aland seat in the 2023 election, with their candidate B.R. Patil securing a victory margin of over 10,000 votes .

The commission emphasized its robust procedure, stating, “No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person” . This counters Gandhi’s claim that a “centralised” operation was hijacking the process without the knowledge of either the applicant or the person whose vote was being deleted .

Gandhi had accused the CEC of stonewalling a Karnataka CID investigation by not providing crucial digital evidence like IP addresses and OTP trails, which he claimed would lead to the masterminds of the operation . The ECI’s statement did not directly address the charge of non-cooperation with the CID but firmly denied the core premise of Gandhi’s allegations about the deletion process and the CEC’s role.