Dear CEC, do please clear the air

Sir,

Citizens remember the press conference you held on Sunday, 17 August, at the National Media Centre in Delhi. It was quite a performance, and we wrote about it too. You were fielding allegations of voter-list fraud levelled by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. He had picked just one Assembly segment (Mahadevpura) of one Lok Sabha seat (Bengaluru Central) in the general election of 2024. You’d astutely chosen the day that Rahul Gandhi was to start his Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar. You’ll remember, of course.

Can we expect a similar press conference in response to the questions the LoP raised on 18 September? We know the office of the redoubtable Election Commission of India (ECI) has dismissed these charges too as ‘baseless and unfounded’. But the ECI was speaking mostly through unknown or unnamed ‘sources’, TV anchors and BJP spokespersons. It will greatly enhance the ECI’s reputation if you were to personally respond to the allegations once again. You’ll have noticed that the combative LoP has taken a leaf out of your own book and set you a one-week deadline. We are waiting, sir.

Here are some of the questions he raised at the press meet on 18 September and some others that follow from his presentation, titled ‘The Aland Files’:

Q. Were online attempts made in Jan–Feb 2023 to delete names of 6,018 voters in the Aland assembly constituency of Karnataka?

Do note that the LoP did not allege that these many voters were actually deleted from the rolls, but that so many fraudulent attempts were made. Since the chief electoral officer (CEO), Karnataka did file an FIR against unknown persons in 2023, you should have no difficulty answering this question.

Q. If the ECI knew about the fraudulent attempt and had filed an FIR calling for an investigation by the state police, why is the ECI not cooperating with the Karnataka CID and the economic offences wing by parting with the information they seek?

Q. Is it true that the Karnataka police sent 18 letters and reminders to the ECI in 18 months, none of which elicited a reply?

Q. Why did the ECI claim on 18 September that it was not possible to file Form 7 applications online asking for deletion of names from the electoral roll, when the complaint to the police clearly states that applications for deletion were received online?

These online applications were ostensibly filed by voters from the same booth using their EPIC numbers to log in. The ECI also generated the OTP, which was sent to mobile phone numbers allegedly provided by the voters. Why, then, did you deny it?

Q. Is it true, as alleged by the LoP, that voters who submitted Form 7 in Aland were all listed at the top of the voters’ list for their respective booths? Why didn’t this ring an alarm in the ECI and why did the ECI wait for persistent complaints from B.R. Patil, the Congress candidate, before the election?

Q. Was the LoP right in pointing out that these forms were submitted at an infeasible speed, if done manually, judging by the time taken to generate and send OTPs? He cited two examples, of one Nagraj submitting two forms in 36 seconds and of another submitting 12 applications in 14 minutes. Surely, this too should have alerted the ECI to mischief?

Q. Was the LoP right in stating that many of the mobile phones used to either upload the forms or to receive the OTPs were from outside the state?

B.R. Patil, the Congress candidate, who detected the mischief has claimed that the phones used were from states as diverse as Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. This does not require a police investigation but surely the numbers could have been checked by the ECI?

Since the ECI knows the source/s of these online forms, the locations of the devices used, the destination IP, and the OTP trail, why is it not sharing the information with Karnataka Police? Surely the ECI knows that these details will help investigators catch the culprits faster?

Q. Is it true that CEO Karnataka wrote a letter on 14 March 2025 to ECI secretary Amit Kumar, urging the ECI to issue a certificate under Sec. 65 of the Indian Evidence Act naming the person who had ‘lawful control’ of the servers and devices where login details were registered and OTPs generated? Has the ECI shared the information?

As the LoP pointed out, sir, it is the ECI’s job to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. We sincerely hope you’ll clear the air without any delay.

Respectfully,

A concerned citizen