CEC Gyanesh Kumar protecting people destroying Indian democracy: Rahul Gandhi

SEnior us united states congress leader Rahul indira nehru gandhi on th alleged the mass cut of 6,018 voters from Congress strongholds in Karnataka’s Aland constituency during the 2023 state assembly polls using the identity of local voters.Addressing media persons at the party headquarters Indira Bhawan in Delhi, Gandhi said Karnataka CID had written 18 times seeking details such as One Time Password (OTP) trails and destination ports involved in such deletions but the Election Commission of India (ECI) did not comply.“The election commission has not given it because this will lead us to where the operations are being done,” said Gandhi. He demanded that the chief election commissioner (CEC) should give the data within a week.“Otherwise, India’s youth will start believing that CEC is siding with vote thieves”, he alleged.Gandhi claimed that the deletion process involved people from outside Karnataka and use of software and huge resources is being done at a large scale.Also Read: Rahul Gandhi fires fresh salvo at EC, poll panel rebutsHe also said that opposition voters from the Scheduled Castes (SCs), tribal communities and minorities are being targeted in this exercise, he said.Gandhi said the deletion incident came to the fore when a booth-level officer (BLO) in Aland found that her uncle’s vote had been deleted due to a complaint lodged by her neighbour.“But the neighbour didn’t know anything about it. Some other person deleted it. In Aland, people who filed applications actually didn’t file it. Mobile phones from different states were used for deletion,” Gandhi said.Gandhi continued his criticism of the ECI alleging that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting people who are destroying democracy.“This is another milestone in how elections are being rigged. These are very strong claims about CEC Gyanesh Kumar. There is solid proof that CEC is protecting people who are destroying Indian democracy. In every election, some groups have been systematically targeting millions of voters who usually vote for the Opposition: Dalits, Adivasis, minorities”, he said.To validate the claims of voter deletion, two complainants were called, one Suryakant came on stage while another person Godabai’s video was played. Both emphasised that they had nothing to do with the deletion of voters.Gandhi, through a presentation, showed that the first voter in every booth was picked as the complainant, indicating use of software which was programmed to target the first voters.The Congress alleged that complainant Suryakant filed 12 deletion forms in 14 minutes while one Nagraj filed two applications in 36 seconds at 4:07am.Gandhi said that Karnataka CID had sent 18 letters in 18 months to the EC seeking the destination IP from where these forms were filled, destination ports and the OTP trails.“And EC has not given it because this will lead us to where the operations are being done,” said Gandhi.He said that the first information report (FIR) against vote fraud was filed in February 2023 and the last letter was sent this month.“The CEC of Karnataka also demanded information. But no answer. This shows that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting people who are doing this. This is being done in a centralised way, on a scale with large resources. The EC knows who these people are. When EC is not giving information, they are defending murderers of democracy,” Gandhi said.Demanding the EC to release evidence to Karnataka CID within one week, Gandhi claimed that “we are getting support from people inside EC and it will not stop.”Dismissing the voter deletion allegations, the poll watchdog called it “incorrect and baseless”.“Allegations made by Shri Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Shri Rahul Gandhi”, the commission said in a statement.EC further clarified that no voter can be removed from the rolls without due process.“No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person”, it said.On August 7, Gandhi alleged that there were 100,250 “stolen” votes in the Mahadevapura assembly segment of Bangalore (Central) parliamentary constituency which helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win the seat in 2024, accusing ECI of “colluding” with the ruling party.Gandhi showed that in Mahadevapura, there were 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters who had a single address and 4,132 voters with invalid photos.His presentation, which also included names of the voters involved, had prompted an immediate reaction from ECI, which had asked him to send a signed declaration and oath to the effect.