Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting "vote chors" and people who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

The leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha has claimed that the investigation into the alleged fraud has been stalled for over 2 years as the poll body is not replying to the letters sent by the CID, calling it "proof" that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is "protecting vote chors (vote thieves)

Gandhi further demanded the ECI to release the requested data within 1 week, as the Karnataka EC has also asked for the data but no reply was given

Alleging that the ECI is aware of people who are fraudulently changing the voter lists, Rahul Gandhi added, "Last letter was sent on September (2025), few days ago. No reply. This is the proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting vote chors."

Rahul Gandhi has said during the press conference that there is a "group of people" who are systematically targeting certain voters who vote for the Opposition parties, and who primarily belong to the OBC, Dalit, and marginalised communities

Talking about the Aland constituency in Karnataka Gandhi alleged that there was an attempt to fraudulently delete around 6 thousand votes by unknown people using software

The Opposition parties have been repeatedly claiming that the Election Commission of India, colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is deleting and adding fraudulent votes in the voter rolls in various elections

Rahul Gandhi futher state that "Election Commission Gyanesh Kumar knows the people who are using software, in a centralised manner to delete votes of people."

The Congress leader has claimed that fraud has taken place in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, and also in various assembly segments, including in Karnataka's Mahadevpura segment