Rahul Gandhi slams CEC Gyanesh Kumar; alleges 'voters systematically deleted ahead of elections'

Rahul Gandhi at Press Conference. Pic/PTI

Following the ‘vote chori' claims last month, the Leader of the Opposition on Thursday has yet again come out with new claims. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting "vote chori" and people who have destroyed democracy. Rahul Gandhi, while citing data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency, claimed that the votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

Rahul Gandhi, during a press conference, said that "The Election Commission must stop this and provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions," as cited by news agency PTI.

Moreover, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha said his revelations today were another milestone in demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also made it clear at the outset that these were not the "hydrogen bomb" of revelations that he had promised, and those will come soon.

He further cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from Karnataka's Aland constituency in 2023. He also cited the example of Maharashtra's Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged, "I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly. The CEC is protecting vote chores and the people who have destroyed Indian democracy," as cited by news agency PTI.

Claiming that someone has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India, Rahul Gandhi has been making some serious allegations against the Election Commission.

Rahul Gandhi further said, "I am the leader of the opposition, and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof," as cited by news agency PTI.

While also putting light on the issue at Karnataka's Aland assembly, Rahul Gandhi said that someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence, he said, alleging that names of voters of the Congress were being deleted systematically, reported PTI.

The Leader of the Opposition further said, "The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle's vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted the vote of her uncle. She asked her neighbour, who said he had no idea. It was found that some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote -- and as luck would have it, got caught, as per PTI.

He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka.

To make things a lot more serious, Rahul Gandhi also called on stage a voter whose vote was attempted to be deleted and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done. Following that, both people at the stage denied any knowledge of getting them deleted from the voter list.

Rahul Gandhi further said these deletions were being done using software. Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Gandhi said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission and has asked for some very simple facts, such as the destination IP from where these applications were filed and OTP trails.

While slamming the Chief Election Commissioner, Rahul Gandhi said, "They are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted," as per news agency PTI.

While accusing CEC Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who are doing this, Rahul asserted, "EC knows who is doing this. I want every youngster in India to know this. They are doing this to your future. When they are not giving this information, they are defending the murderers of democracy," as per news agency PTI.

Addressing the concluding event of his Voter Adhikar Yatra on September 1, Gandhi said his party will soon come out with a "hydrogen bomb" of revelations about "vote chori", and after that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to show his face to the country.

(With inputs from PTI)