Vote Chori: ‘Someone’ tried to delete 6,018 voters in Aland, Karnataka; only 24 cases genuine

Addressing another press conference on ‘Vote Chori’ today, 18 September, in New Delhi, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi directly accused chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of shielding those responsible for the systematic deletion of voters who might support opposition parties.

Earlier, the LoP had showcased evidence of fraudulent additions of votes in Karnataka’s Mahadevpura constituency, which he said aided the BJP’s victory in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

On Thursday, he shifted the focus to deletions, citing the Aland assembly seat in Karnataka, where 6,018 names were allegedly struck off the rolls using phone numbers linked to different locations.

His latest set of claims mark one of the most direct challenges to the credibility of the Election Commission in recent years — an institution that had once been described as the bedrock of India’s democratic system — but is only the latest in a series of revelations from Opposition parties, including not just the Congress but the Samajwadi Party and the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) as well over the last several months.

Gandhi alleged that voter IDs were being deleted en masse through fake logins and phone numbers originating from outside the affected state.

Such operations, he claimed, were not the work of just the odd disaffected individual but was being carried out from a central nexus, coordinated using specialised software to execute large-scale deletions.

“This is not random. It is systematic. A ‘third force’ is carrying out targeted voter deletions,” the LoP alleged in this, his second major press conference on the issue. He said the ‘H-bomb’ is still coming, signalling that even more alarming revelations are in the offing.

But for now, he said, “Some force is systematically targeting millions of voters across India — Dalits, tribals, minorities, OBCs — mainly those who vote for the opposition. We had heard this before, but now we have 100 per cent proof.”

Gandhi claimed that in Aland, attempts were made to delete at least 6,018 votes. “We don’t know the total number, but these 6,018 deletions were caught by coincidence. The actual figure is much higher. And the booths with maximum deletions were Congress strongholds. This was no coincidence; it was a planned operation,” he alleged.

The Congress leader accused the Election Commission of obstructing the probe launched by Karnataka CID against the vote chori.

According to him, the CID had written 18 letters in 18 months requesting crucial technical details — destination IPs, device ports, OTP trails and ownership of phone numbers — but the ECI either ignored the requests or provided incomplete information.

“I’m making a very strong charge as Leader of Opposition. I will show proof — in black and white — that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who destroyed Indian democracy. He is protecting the vote thieves,” Rahul declared.

He presented a timeline:

• February 2023: FIR registered; CID writes to ECI seeking details.

• August 2023: ECI provides incomplete information, stalling the probe.

• Since then: 18 reminder letters sent, but no cooperation.

• March 2025: Karnataka Election Commission also sought details; latest reminder in September still unanswered.

Rahul also flagged a similar case in Maharashtra, alleging the same modus operandi of tampering with voter lists. “This is not confined to Aland. It is happening in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra — everywhere. Whoever is behind this is working with one agenda: to delete opposition votes,” he said.

He demanded that the ECI hand over all details to Karnataka CID within a week, warning: “Otherwise, the entire country will know who the mastermind behind this ‘vote theft’ really is.”

The Congress leadership also paraded out individuals whose names, they claimed, had been used to delete the voters without their knowledge, to underline the ground-level impact of the alleged manipulation.

The Election Commission, immediately put out an objection, dismissing Gandhi’s allegations as “incorrect and baseless”.

“No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Shri Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.

“In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletions in Aland assembly constituency, and an FIR was filed by the authority of the ECI itself to investigate the matter. As per records, Aland was won by BJP’s Subhash Guttedar in 2018 and by Congress’ B.R. Patil in 2023,” the EC said in a statement.

Gandhi retorted on social media that the local Election Commission official was the one to file an FIR on the Aland fraud — but the CID investigation has been blocked by the CEC!

Rahul Gandhi’s offensive comes at a time when opposition parties have repeatedly accused the ECI of functioning under government pressure — allegations the Commission has consistently denied.

By personally naming the chief election commissioner this time, Gandhi has escalated the confrontation, turning the ‘Vote Chori’ campaign slogan into a direct institutional battle.

Political watchers believe that if these allegations gain traction — and they certainly did last time around in the Mahadevpura revelation and in the Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar recently concluded as the state heads for assembly polls — they could lead to mass protests against the ECI nationwide, hampering the working of the constitutional body further at a time when its special intensive revision (SIR) project is already sub judice in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Congress explained why these allegations cannot translate into a legal case — the formulation of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Bill of 2023, which was passed while 141 Opposition MPs were suspended from the house in December of that year, granting immunity (the Congress alleged, per clause 16) to election commissioners in cases of both civil and criminal offences, even after their tenure ends.

“Even the President of India doesn't have such criminal immunity,” the Kerala INC handle pointed out. “We had a Uniform Criminal Code till 2014. Now we don't have it. The party who talked about Uniform Civil Code removed the Uniform Criminal Code we had since 1862.”

For the ECI, the challenge is daunting even with what legal immunity it may claim — for it must, with several states headed to the polls next year as well, defend its reputation as an impartial arbiter of India’s elections, at a moment when public trust in central institutions is increasingly contested.

Watch the full livestream of Gandhi’s press conference here.