Karnataka: Congress slams ECI's stance on 'vote theft' matter

Bengaluru, Sep 19 (IANS) Criticising the Election Commission of India's (ECI) clarifications and denial of charges regarding 'vote chori' by the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Minister for RDPR, IT and BT Priyank Kharge and Aland MLA B.R. Patil, in a joint press conference dubbed the claims by ECI as a complete lie.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Friday, Minister Priyank Kharge stated, "After Rahul Gandhi’s press conference, the Election Commission is now speaking as if it was they who discovered and stopped voter fraud. They are claiming that they themselves halted the deletion of voters from electoral rolls. This is a complete lie."

"On February 11, 2023, in Kalaburagi, B.R. Patil and I held a press conference and revealed that 6,670 fake online applications had been filed to remove names from the voters’ list.

On February 20, 2023, I wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner in Delhi on my official letterhead, complaining about the process of voter deletions. Following this, Kalaburagi AC Mamata assured us of action, and on Feb 21, 2023 an FIR was registered. The copy clearly states that based on the complaint of B.R. Patil, a case was registered regarding the illegal deletion of 6,670 voters from Aland constituency," Minister Kharge stated.

After the preliminary investigation, a returning officer stated that B.R. Patil’s allegations were true. Out of 6,180 applications, only 24 were genuine; the remaining 5,994 voters had not submitted any request at all. Officials themselves admitted that they did not know how this happened. When voters and BLOs were questioned, none of them knew how such requests had been filed, Kharge alleged.

When technical details were examined, it was found that the mobile numbers used to file the deletion requests were from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha. Further investigation is necessary. Officials said the probe could continue if OTP, IP addresses, and other technical details were provided. However, the Chief Election Commissioner falsely claimed that all details had already been shared, Kharge slammed.

"... the Cyber Crime Division stated that they had written 18 letters in the last 18 months to the CEO seeking OTP, mobile numbers, login details, IP addresses, and device IDs, but had not received a single response," he underlined.

"On February 4, 2025, the Chief Electoral Officer wrote to the Principal Secretary of the Election Commission referencing letters written between March 29, 2023 and January 19, 2025. Despite claiming that all details had been shared, why did the Karnataka CEO keep writing letters? Clearly, the Election Commission is lying," Kharge stated.

Does the Election Commission even have basic sense? Rahul Gandhi never said voters’ names could be deleted online. He only said that Form No. 7 was being misused. Yet, the Commission is making false accusations, he stated.

The EC claims that all documents were submitted by September 6, 2023.

If that were true, why were more than 15 additional letters written? Rahul Gandhi has questioned the Election Commission, but strangely, it is the BJP that is rushing to respond.

Leaders like Sambit Patra, Gajendra Singh, P.C. Mohan, Dinesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Kishan Singh, Vishnu Deo Singh, and Ashok are all jumping in to defend the Commission, he stated.

When B.R. Patil exposed this matter in 2023, both the central and state governments were under BJP rule. It was BJP-appointed officials who wrote all these letters. Why is the Election Commission afraid of providing information? Earlier, the EC functioned well, but now it is acting like a puppet, he slammed.

Both the central and state Election Commissions have lied. They must give clear explanations regarding all these issues. Why the Karnataka Election Commission has lied remains a mystery, Kharge concluded.

MLA B.R. Patil stated, "I congratulate Rahul Gandhi for bringing the Aland voter fraud issue to national attention, and also thank Priyank Kharge for standing in support of me."

--IANS

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