'Votes being deleted like in call centres using software’: Top 10 jabs from Rahul Gandhi’s fresh attack on EC

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched yet another attack on Election Commission of India by accusing it of 'criminality' of addition and deletion of voters.

Gandhi, the Rae Bareli Member of Parliament (MP) also accused the poll panel and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of protecting 'murderers' of democracy by not providing details of voter deletions as asked by Karnataka Crime Investigation Department (CID).

“Gyanesh Kumarji knows who is doing this in an organised and systematic manner,” Rahul Gandhi said giving one week time to the poll panel to respond to allegations.

In his last press conference on 7 August, Rahul Gandhi's cited an analysis of data from a Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka from the 2024 general elections to allege that the Election Commission is colluding with the BJP to ‘steal elections’ and called it a ‘crime’ against the Constitution.

The allegations had triggered a political row with both the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the Election Commision (EC) targetting Gandhi.

The Congress, however, took off a campaign called ‘vote chori’ from the press conference. Gandhi led a ‘Voter Adhikar rally’ in poll-bound Bihar on the ‘vote chori’ plank.

Here is what Rahul Gandhi said in his latest press conference :

First of all, this is not the H-bomb, the H-bomb is coming. This is another milestone in setting up and demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged.

1-CEC Gyanesh Kumar is 'protecting' people who have 'destroyed' Indian democracy: Rahul Gandhi at press conference. Some groups of people 'systematically targeting' millions of voters for purpose of deletion; minorities, Dalits targeted.

2-I am not going to say anything on this stage that is not backed up by 100 per cent truth. I am somebody who loves my country, I love my constitution, I love the democratic process, and I am protecting that process. I'm not going to say anything here that is not going to be based on 100 per cent proof that you can determine.

3- Aland is a constituency in Karnataka. Somebody tried to delete 6018 votes. We don't know the total number of votes that were deleted in Aland in the 2023 election. They are much higher than 6,018, but somebody got caught deleting those 6018 votes, and it was caught by coincidence.

Who is deleting the votes?

“What happened was that the booth-level officer there noted that her uncle's vote was deleted, so she checked who deleted her uncle's vote, and she found that it was a neighbour who deleted the vote. She asked her neighbour, but they said I did not delete any vote. Neither the person deleting the vote nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote.” Rahul Gandhi said.

4- In Aland, 6018 applications were filed impersonating voters. The people who filed these applications actually never filed them. The filing was done automatically using software. Mobile numbers from outside Karnataka, from different states, were used to delete numbers in Aland, and it was done targeting Congress voter

5-Let's talk about how this is being done and why I'm saying and we are saying that this is being done in a centralised manner and this is being done not using individuals but using software in a call centre manner.

6-Let's come to why I'm making such a direct accusation about Gyanesh Kumar. There is an ongoing investigation into this matter in Karnataka. The CID of Karnataka has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission, and they have asked the Election Commission for some very simple facts. Number one, give us the destination IP from where these forms were filled.

“Number two, give us the device destination ports from where these applications were filed. And number three, most importantly, give us the OTP trails because when you file, you have to get OTP. 18 times in 18 months, the CID of Karnataka has written to the Election Commission for this, and they are not giving it. Why are they not giving it? Because this will lead us to where the operation is being done, and we are absolutely convinced where this is going to go,” Rahul Gandhi said.

7-Look at the serial numbers... A software is picking up the first name in the booth and using it to delete votes. Someone ran an automated program to ensure that the first voter at the booth was the applicant. That same person got cell phones from outside the state, used them to file the application, and we are pretty certain that this was done in a centralised manner and it was done at scale. This was not done at a worker level; this was done at a whole simpler level.

8-The question is who are these people who are indulging in systematic, call centre type software driver voter addition and deletion. CEC Gyanesh Kumar knows this.

9- Our demand to Gyanesh Kumar is to please provide proof of these additions and deletions to Karnataka CID.

10-We have started getting help from inside the Election Commission. I am making it clear that we are now getting information from inside the Election Commission, and this is not going to stop.