Rahul Gandhi has fired fresh allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI), claiming a sneaky “centralised system” is deleting votes from Congress strongholds using fake logins and out-of-state phone numbers. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition accused the poll body of turning a blind eye to these voter deletions, especially targeting marginalised communities like Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
In his second such media briefing in recent months—titled “Democracy can’t be deleted”—Gandhi zeroed in on Karnataka’s Aland constituency. He said a whopping 6,018 voters were wiped off the electoral rolls there, all to favour a particular party. “This isn’t random; it’s a targeted attack on democracy,” he told reporters, pointing to solid proof from a Booth Level Officer (BLO) who discovered a relative’s name missing from the voter list.
Gandhi didn’t hold back on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, slamming him for shielding “vote chors” (vote thieves). He revealed that Karnataka’s Election Commission kicked off an inquiry in February 2023, firing off 18 letters for details on the deletions. The state CID even demanded OTPs, call records, and IP addresses in March, but got incomplete info only in August. “The CEC knows everything but stays silent,” Gandhi charged, urging the ECI to release phone number data and OTPs within a week.
He painted a bigger picture, alleging this “centralised model” uses software and call centres to tamper with voter lists nationwide. Gandhi also flagged similar tricks in Maharashtra’s Rajoura for adding bogus voters. When asked if Congress would head to court over these electoral malpractices, he dodged a straight answer, saying, “I’m a soldier of democracy, committed to upholding the Constitution.”
This comes a month after Gandhi’s claims of “stolen votes” in Karnataka’s Mahadevpura Assembly seat. He teased more revelations, hinting at his promised “Hydrogen bomb” expose on government wrongdoing. “My team is gathering all the evidence on electoral fraud, and it’ll drop soon,” he added, keeping the suspense alive.
The controversy has sparked debates on voter list integrity ahead of key polls, with Gandhi demanding immediate action to protect India’s democratic process.
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