IN RAHUL GANDHI’S series of attacks on the Election Commission, the latest episode featured the Aland assembly constituency in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district. The leader of opposition alleged that someone tried to delete 6,018 voter names from the electoral rolls ahead of the 2023 assembly elections, and that this was “a planned operation” to target Congress strongholds.
He and B.R. Patil, the Congress legislator from Aland, claimed that an “automated programme” from a “call centre-like” setup used phone numbers from outside Karnataka to file online applications requesting the deletion of certain voter names.
In response, the EC said that no voter could be removed solely on the basis of an online application, and that booth level officers physically verify each case. It also said that, though 6,018 applications for deletion were submitted online, only 24 were found genuine and they were struck from the rolls.
Gandhi had claimed that the “culprits” had picked the first name on the voter list in the affected booths and made multiple applications for deletion on that voter’s behalf. For instance, at booth 37, 63-year-old Godabai was shown to have submitted 12 applications within 35 minutes on December 12, 2022. She later told reporters that she was unaware of this.
The alleged fraud came to light when some Congress workers noticed unusual deletions in booths seen as party strongholds. The returning officer lodged a police complaint in February 2023 after the voters confirmed they had not sought deletions.
“I had lost the 2018 elections by a mere 672 votes,” said Patil. “I suspect such deletions are being carried out across the country. The modus operandi could be different in different places.”
The Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department, which had been probing the case, said the EC did not share crucial data such as destination IP addresses and OTP trails. The EC said it had already shared online forms, applicants’ mobile numbers, login details and IP addresses on September 6, 2023, but the CID says the IPs are “dynamic”, which does not help in pinning down the exact location of the applicant.
As the CID investigation seemed to have hit a dead end, the Karnataka government, on September 20, formed a special investigation team to probe the case.
“The EC did not give the evidence sought by the CID,” said Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge. “Whom are they protecting? We have clear evidence to say the BJP is behind it. We will prove it at an appropriate time. But we want the EC to give the information officially. The EC is behaving like a puppet in the hands of the BJP.”
Defending his party, BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra pointed to the Congress’s growing vote share in Aland to dismiss the allegations. “The BJP accepted the people’s mandate,” he said. “But the Congress is blinded by entitlement and refuses to accept that people can reject it. Rahul Gandhi’s accusation is a conspiracy theory. Let the Congress file an affidavit to the EC or go to court instead of playing politics to erode the credibility of constitutional institutions,” he said.
Notable, Kharge has hinted that the state government could indeed go to court.