Rahul Gandhi: CEC Gyanesh Kumar 'shielding people who are stealing votes' | WATCH

New Delhi: Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has directly accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of "shielding people who are stealing votes" by allegedly stonewalling an investigation into fraudulent voter deletions. Speaking to the media, Gandhi claimed he had "absolute solid proof" of the CEC's alleged obstruction.

The accusations stem from an ongoing investigation by the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into a series of alleged voter deletions. Over the last 18 months, the CID has sent 18 letters to the Election Commission of India (ECI), requesting critical data, including destination IP addresses, device destination ports, and OTP trails related to online voter application forms. According to Gandhi, the ECI has repeatedly denied this information.

The Rae Bareli MP claimed that Karnataka's Chief Election Officer wrote to the EC asking the poll body to provide the information, but received no response.

"When they are not giving this info, they are defending the murderers of democracy," the official said. The CID has been denied information that could reveal the identities of those allegedly involved in what Gandhi has called a "non-isolated case" of voter manipulation, which he claims is also occurring in Maharashtra and other states.

Gandhi also shared two case studies to substantiate his claims.

Case Study 1: Voter Deletions in Aland, Karnataka

Rahul Gandhi highlighted a specific instance in Aland, Karnataka, where he alleges 6,018 votes were stolen. The theft was allegedly carried out through an automated program that filed online EC forms, using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka to delete voters, primarily targeting those likely to support the Congress party. The fraudulent activity was first discovered when a local Booth Level Officer (BLO) was informed by a resident that her relatives' votes had been deleted.

Case of Godabai

In one instance, mobile numbers from outside Karnataka were used to delete the votes of 12 of Godabai’s neighbours, all without their knowledge or consent.

Case of Suryakant: The identity of a man named Suryakant was allegedly used to delete 12 voters in just 14 minutes. Suryakant confirmed he had no idea his identity had been compromised until he was informed by a third party.

Case of Nagaraj: In a separate incident, two application forms were filled out and submitted under Nagaraj's name in a mere 36 seconds, suggesting the use of an automated program. According to the allegations, the program was designed to target the first voter of a given booth as the fraudulent applicant.

Case Study 2: Allegations in Maharashtra

The accusations of vote theft are not limited to Karnataka. Gandhi's office also cited a case in Maharashtra, where it is alleged that 6,850 fake voter additions were made, further supporting the claim of a widespread, systemic issue.

In light of these allegations, Rahul Gandhi has issued a formal demand that the Election Commission release all requested evidence to the Karnataka CID within a week. The ECI has not yet commented on the accusations.