The Election Commission of India on Thursday categorically refuted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s accusations against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, labeling them as “false and baseless.” Gandhi alleged that the CEC was protecting individuals involved in large-scale voter deletion scams. In response, the Commission emphasized that public online removal of votes is not permitted and that deletions can only occur after the affected voter has been given an opportunity to present their case. Regarding the Aland constituency in Karnataka mentioned by Gandhi, the EC acknowledged that there were fraudulent attempts in 2023, but confirmed that these attempts were unsuccessful and an FIR was filed to initiate an investigation.
The Commission also noted that elections in Aland yielded fair outcomes, with the BJP winning in 2018 and the Congress in 2023. Nevertheless, Gandhi accused the EC of defending “vote thieves” and claimed that voter deletions were being systematically carried out using automated software, providing examples from Karnataka and Maharashtra. He also alleged that the Karnataka CID had repeatedly requested technical details from the EC but received no reply. Describing it as a “murder of democracy,” Gandhi promised to soon reveal what he called a “hydrogen bomb” of evidence to uncover the operations of “vote chori.”