Karnataka: Congress attacks ECI’s stance on ‘vote theft’ matter

Minister for RDPR, IT and BT Priyank Kharge and Aland MLA B.R. Patil on Friday, 19 September, tore into the Election Commission of India (ECI), branding its defence against Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ charge as nothing short of a blatant lie.

At a joint press conference, Kharge said the commission was pretending as though it had uncovered and stopped the malpractice. “This is a complete lie,” he declared.

Kharge recalled that on 11 February 2023, he and Patil had first revealed that 6,670 fake online applications were filed to delete voters in Aland constituency. A week later, he wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner in Delhi, after which an FIR was lodged based on Patil’s complaint.

Preliminary investigations confirmed the allegations: of 6,180 deletion requests, only 24 were genuine, while the rest were fraudulent. “Officials themselves admitted they did not know how these requests were filed,” Kharge alleged. Technical checks showed that the mobile numbers used for the applications came from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha.

He further charged that despite repeated demands, crucial technical details like OTPs, IP addresses, login details, and device IDs were never shared with the Cyber Crime Division. “In 18 months, 18 letters were written, but no response came,” Kharge said, questioning the EC’s claim that all documents had been provided by 6 September 2023.

“If everything was shared, why were more than 15 additional letters sent later? Clearly, the Election Commission is lying,” he said. He also criticised the BJP for rushing to defend the EC.

Kharge accused both the central and state commissions of acting like “puppets” under BJP rule. “Earlier, the EC functioned independently. Now, it is afraid to reveal the truth,” he charged.

MLA Patil, who first exposed the Aland case, thanked Rahul Gandhi for highlighting the issue nationally and Kharge for supporting him.

With IANS inputs