The Election Commission of India on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that a centralised software was used for the “mass deletion” of names from voters’ list in several states.
Terming Gandhi’s charges as “incorrect and baseless”, the poll body said no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public.
It further asserted that no deletion can take place without giving an opportunity to be heard to the affected person.
Referring to Gandhi’s claims of “mass deletion” of voters’ names in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, the Commission said certain “unsuccessful” attempts were made for the deletion of electors in 2023, and an FIR had been filed by the authority of the ECI itself to investigate the matter.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, stepped up his attack on the Election Commission on Thursday, accusing its chief, Gyanesh Kumar, of protecting "vote chors" and people who have destroyed democracy.
"I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly. The CEC is protecting vote chors and the people who have destroyed Indian democracy," he said.
Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from the Aland constituency in 2023. "In Aland, 6018 applications were filed impersonating voters. The people who filed these applications actually never filed them,” he alleged, adding that the filing was done automatically using software and phone numbers.
Gandhi also called on stage a voter whose vote was attempted to be deleted, and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done. Both denied any knowledge of the same.
The Rae Bareli MP also cited the example of Maharashtra's Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software.