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 voters’ names in several states.
"Allegations made by Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi," the poll body said.
It further asserted that no deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, stepped up his attack 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 Karnataka's 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.
