Stepping up the pressure on the Election Commission (EC) over the issue of alleged vote theft, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of protecting “vote chors (thieves)” who have “destroyed Indian democracy”.
The Congress leader cited data from two Assembly constituencies — one in Karnataka and another in Maharashtra — to allege irregularities in electoral rolls and asked the EC to provide, within a week, information about alleged voter deletions sought by the Karnataka CID. He said the agency had written 18 letters to the EC in as many months, seeking the relevant information that would help unmask the entire operation, but the poll body was “not giving it”.
The EC dismissed Gandhi’s allegations as “incorrect and baseless”. It said it had got an FIR registered in the Karnataka case in 2023 and handed over the information to the police.
Gandhi alleged that while there was an attempt to systematically delete Congress voters in Aland in Kalaburagi district, bogus voters were added to the rolls in Rajura in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. The LoP, who addressed a special press briefing at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, said his revelations had yet again demonstrated that elections were being “rigged”, but added that these were not part of the “hydrogen bomb” he promised in recent weeks.
“Gyanesh Kumar, India’s Chief Election Commissioner, is protecting the vote thieves … This is proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the vote thieves, and this is black and white proof, there is no confusion about it … This is not something I am saying lightly. I am the LoP in the Lok Sabha. This is something I am saying after solid proof I am going to show you, the people and youth of India. Proof that is black and white that the CEC is protecting the people who have destroyed Indian democracy. I am also going to show you the method with which votes are being added and deleted, and how that is done,” he said.
“In election after election, someone, some force, some group has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India … Different communities, mainly communities voting for the Opposition — Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and OBCs — are specifically targeted. We have heard this many times and now we have found 100% proof of it. I am not going to say anything on this stage that is not backed up by 100% proof,” Gandhi said.
Asked about the “mastermind”, he said, “That too, I will show you with proof. We have it … In hydrogen bomb, it is black and white. I am just creating a foundation.”
Asked if he would approach the courts, Gandhi said, “My job as LoP in a normal situation is to be in Opposition, and pressure the government … If the country’s institutions want to do something, they will … Democracy of India has been hijacked. Brothers and sisters, democracy can only be saved by the people.”
What happened in Aland
Gandhi claimed that in Aland — which the Congress won by 10,348 votes in 2023 — his party’s voters were targeted. “Someone tried to delete 6,018 votes. We don’t know the total number of votes deleted in Aland in the 2023 election … The top 10 booths with maximum deletions were Congress strongholds. Congress won eight out of the 10 booths in 2018. This was not a coincidence; this was a planned operation.”
About the alleged operation, he said, “The filing was done automatically using software … A software is picking up the first name in the booth and using it to delete voters. So someone ran an automated programme that ensured that the first voter in the booth was the applicant. The same person got cellphones from outside the state, used them to file the applications. We are pretty certain it was done in a centralised manner, and at scale … It was done at a call centre level … The question is whose numbers are these, how are they operated, where were they operated from, who generated the OTPs to disturb the process?”
The LoP said some of the people whose names were shown to have filed these applications “actually never did it”. He played a video of an elderly woman, Godabai, who said she had not filed any deletion form. He also called on stage a person named Suryakant who was shown to have “filled 12 deletion forms in 14 minutes” and a woman named Babita Choudhary, whose name was allegedly deleted on the former’s request. Suryakant said he had no idea about this.
Gandhi claimed the entire operation got caught “by coincidence”.
“The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted the vote of her uncle. When 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,” he said.
Citing the CID investigation, which began in February 2023, Gandhi said, “The CID in Karnataka has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the EC. They have asked for some very simple facts: give us the destination IP (Internet Protocol) from where these forms were filled; two: give us the device destination ports from where these applications were filed. The third seeking OTP trails because when you file, you have to get an OTP. This information will lead us to where the operation is being done from, but they are not giving it.”
The Congress leader claimed that in Maharashtra’s Rajura 6,850 voters were “fraudulently” added through automated software. “Same system is doing this. It is doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, it has done it in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and we have proof of it.”
EC response
Responding to the LoP, the EC said, “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 the Aland Assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of the ECI itself to investigate the matter. As per records, Aland Assembly constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023.”
In further clarification, the Karnataka CEO said the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) in Aland received 6,018 Form-7 applications for deletion in December 2022 through various apps such as NVSP, VHA, and GARUDA. This raised suspicion and these applications were verified by the ERO, Assistant ERO, or Booth-Level Officers. They found only 24 applications to be genuine. “Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and not deleted,” read the CEO statement.
Based on the findings, the ERO got an FIR registered at the local police station on February 21, 2023. Following instructions from the EC, the state CEO on September 6, 2023, handed over to the Kalaburagi SP information such as “objector’s details, including Form Reference Number, name of the Objector, his EPIC number and mobile number used for log-in and mobile number provided by the Objector for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, Form submission date and time, and user creation date”, read the statement.
“After providing the requested information, meetings were also conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka with the Investigating Officer and Cyber Security experts of the Police to review the progress of the investigation. CEO, Karnataka has already been providing any other assistance/information/documents to the investigating agency,” said the CEO.
In the evening, the Congress shared a letter the CID wrote to the state CEO on September 9, 2025, seeking “relevant information” for investigation. The letter says that details such as “Destination IP address, destination port address, functioning of the NVSP, VHA, Garuda applications” were not provided despite being sought several times earlier.
