General
Rahul Gandhi of the Congress leader on Thursday launched a sharp attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of siding with forces undermining Indian democracy and shielding those allegedly involved in vote theft.
“This is another milestone in setting up and demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged. I am going to make a strong claim about CEC Gyanesh Kumar. I am going to show the people of India proof that is black and white and absolutely clear that the EC of India is protecting those who have destroyed Indian democracy. I am also going to show you the method by which votes are being added and deleted and how that’s done,” Rahul Gandhi claimed at a press interaction, escalating the Opposition’s ongoing criticism of the Election Commission.
Also Read | EC rejects Rahul Gandhi’s charge against CEC Gyanesh Kumar as ‘baseless’
“Gyanesh Kumar ji vote-choro ki raksha kar rahe hai. This is black and white evidence. There is no confusion in this,” alleged the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
When asked how Gyanesh Kumar is benefiting from all this, Rahul Ganhi replied, “Frankly, what I am doing here is not my job. My work is to participate in a democratic process, the task of protecting India’s democracy is that of the country’s institutions. But because they are not doing it, I am having to. When we finish all our presentations, there will be no doubt in your minds that state after state, there has been vote chori in elections.”
The Congress MP added that the party has started getting help from within the election commisson. “We are getting information from inside the EC. This won’t stop. People of India will not accept this (vote chori),” he claimed.
Also Read | Proof on stage, ‘H-bomb’ held back, deadline to CEC: 5 takeaways from Rahul Gandhi ‘vote chori’ presser 2.0
General Rahul Gandhi sets deadlines for Gyanesh Kumar
Gandhi said the election commission must stop this and provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions.
He also made it clear at the outset that these were not the “hydrogen bomb” of revelations that he had promised, and those will come soon.
Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from Karnataka’s Aland constituency in 2023. He also cited the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software.
Also Read | ‘Someone’ plotting deletion of votes: Rahul Gandhi drops fresh explosives at press conference
“I am the leader of opposition and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof,” Gandhi said.
In Karnataka’s Aland, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence, he said, alleging that names of voters of the Congress were being deleted systematically.
“The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted the vote of her uncle. She asked her neighbour who said he had no idea. It was found that some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote — and as luck would have it got caught,” Gandhi said.
He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka.
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.
He said these deletions were being done using a software.
Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Gandhi said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission and has asked for some very simple facts such as the destination IP from where these applications were filled and OTP trails.
They are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted, Gandhi claimed.
Addressing the concluding event of his Voter Adhikar Yatra on September 1, Gandhi had said his party will soon come out with a “hydrogen bomb” of revelations about “vote chori” and after that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to show his face to the country.
Last month, Gandhi, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, claimed that over one lakh votes were “stolen” through manipulation in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka, and asserted that “vote chori” is an “atom bomb on our democracy”.