Our Bureau
Bengaluru
The Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi has been going fiercely with his campaign against the Election Commission of India. He has now put up allegations of mass deletion of voters from the strongholds of Congress in Karnataka during the 2023 Assembly election. He highlighted that this alleged deletion of voters was not executed by individuals but with the use of software and in a centralised manner.
However, the commission has responded to these major allegations by Gandhi stating that they are ‘baseless’ and ‘incorrect’. They noted that deletion of voters can’t be done online and won’t be approved without hearing the affected person. The commission highlighted that two years back there were unsuccessful attempts made for deletion in Aland Assembly but it was ECI that filed a FIR against it.
“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,” the commission said.
“In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in Aland Assembly Constituency, and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” they added.
What’s surprising is that the Aland Assembly, on which the deletion was attempted, was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Subhadh Guttedar in 2018 but in 2023 the election, the one in which the FIR was filed, Congress’ BR Patil won the seat.
Gandhi stated that in every election the voters that are voting for the opposition are targeted and he has 100% proof of that. Mr Gandhi alleged that in Aland, Karnataka, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes, but was caught due to a mere coincidence.
Mr Gandhi said, “In election after election, a group of people has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India, different communities, mainly communities that are voting for the Opposition. We have found 100 per cent proof of this. I love my country, I love the Constitution, I love the democratic process and I am protecting that process. I am not going to say anything here that is not going to be based on 100 per cent proof that you can determine. The judgment is yours.”
“The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote was deleted, and she found her neighbour had deleted it. So, she asked the neighbour and he said he did not know about it. Neither the person who deleted the vote knew, nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. And as luck would have it, got caught,” he revealed.
