The Election Commission of India has dismissed the allegations of voter deletions made by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, during his recently concluded press conference, calling them "incorrect and baseless," while emphasising that no voters can be deleted online by the public.
The poll body clarified that no deletion can take place without giving the affected person an opportunity to be heard.
However, the poll body acknowledged that certain unsuccessful attempts were made to delete electors in Karnataka's Aland Assembly Constituency, and an FIR was filed by the ECI itself to investigate the matter.
Rahul Gandhi started the press conference by saying that someone had attempted to delete 6,018 votes from Karnataka's Aland seat using software and phone numbers from outside the state. He also displayed cell phone numbers that were allegedly used to delete voters. The senior Congress leader further claimed that voter deletion was done in Congress strongholds.
Claiming that attempts to delete voters were made in booths where Congress was ahead, the senior Congress leader introduced a woman named Godabai. He said that fake logins had been created in her name and that attempts were made to delete 12 voters. "Godabai has no idea," Rahul Gandhi said.
Interestingly, the Assembly constituency in question, Aland, was won by Congress candidate BR Patil by over 10,000 votes, according to Election Commission data.
In his presser, Rahul Gandhi further claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was colluding with "vote chors," pointing out that the Karnataka CID had sent 18 letters to the poll body over the last 18 months seeking information on the destination IP of the device used to file voter deletion forms and the OTP trails.
"They are not giving it because this will lead us to where the operation is being done from. This is absolute solid proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who are doing this," he said.
