Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the Election Commission (EC) put a lock on “vote theft” only after he raised the matter, responding to the poll panel’s rollout of a new ‘e-sign’ feature that was reported by The Indian Express.
The Indian Express had on Wednesday reported that the EC has rolled out a new ‘e-sign’ feature on its ECINet portal and app for those seeking to register as voters, or applying for deletions and corrections. Now, applicants will receive one-time passwords (OTPs) on their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers to verify their identities.
Earlier, applicants could submit forms on the EC apps and portal after connecting a phone number with an existing Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, with no verification done of whether the details indeed belonged to them.
In a post on X, Gandhi shared a screenshot of The Indian Express report, and said: “(Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh (Kumar) ji, we caught the theft and only then did you remember to put a lock – now we’ll catch the thieves too.”
The EC move came less than a week after Gandhi alleged the misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, ahead of the 2023 state Assembly polls, as part of his press conference on “electoral fraud”. On Wednesday, Gandhi also asked Kumar when he would give the evidence to the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
In a press conference last week, Gandhi had said that several votes were sought to be deleted in Aland allegedly through a software, but the CID detected it and prevented election “fraud”.
Gandhi had urged Kumar and the EC to provide details of those behind the “vote fraud” for the CID to find out those behind it.
In response to Gandhi’s allegations, the EC had said in a statement: “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. In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletions in Aland Assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of the EC itself to investigate the matter.”
