Rahul Gandhi Presents ‘Proof’ of ‘Vote Chori’ in Karnataka, Accuses CEC of Protecting ‘Thieves’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday escalated his “vote chori” (vote theft) campaign, presenting what he called “black and white evidence” of systemic voter deletion in Karnataka’s Aland constituency and accusing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of “protecting vote thieves” .

In a detailed press conference in Delhi, the Leader of Opposition alleged that a “centralised” and automated software operation was used to illegally strike off thousands of names from electoral rolls, specifically targeting minorities and Congress strongholds .

“Aland is a constituency in Karnataka. Somebody tried to delete 6,018 votes,” Gandhi alleged, stating that the actual number of deletions in the 2023 election was likely much higher . He explained that the alleged fraud was discovered by chance when a booth-level officer found her own uncle’s name had been deleted. The application for deletion, she found, was filed in the name of a neighbor who had no knowledge of it . “Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote,” Gandhi claimed .

Presenting a slick presentation, Gandhi laid out how the operation allegedly worked. He claimed a software program was used to automatically select the first name on the booth list to act as the applicant for deleting other voters, using mobile numbers from different states to generate OTPs for fake applications . “The top 10 booths with maximum deletions were Congress strongholds,” he charged, calling it a “planned operation” and not a coincidence . He also brought several affected voters from Aland to the press conference, who testified that deletion applications were filed in their names without their knowledge .

Gandhi reserved his sharpest criticism for the Chief Election Commissioner. “I am not saying this lightly… The Chief Election Commissioner of India is protecting people who have destroyed Indian democracy,” he stated .

He claimed that the Karnataka CID, which is investigating the matter, has sent 18 letters to the Election Commission over 18 months seeking basic digital evidence like IP addresses and OTP trails, but has been stonewalled . “Why are they not giving it?” Gandhi asked. “Because this will lead us to where the operation is being done” . He concluded by demanding that the CEC hand over the evidence to the CID within a week.