New Delhi: Stepping up his attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi Thursday alleged a “centralised and organised” attempt to delete the names of more than 6,000 voters from the electoral roll in Congress strongholds in the Aland assembly in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi during the 2023 elections.
Gandhi presented what he described as “full proof” evidence of alleged voter manipulation, during a press conference at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi. He alleged that voter deletion is being attempted en masse “through the use of software”.
He also accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of shielding those responsible for what he called a coordinated effort to rig elections, and of failing to cooperate with a probe by the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
“The Chief Election Commissioner of India is protecting the people who destroyed Indian democracy. In election after election, someone, some force, some group of people has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India, different communities, mainly communities voting for the Opposition. Dalits, Adivasis, minorities, OBCs are specifically targeted. We have found 100 percent proof of this. I am not going to say anything that is not based on 100 percent proof that you can determine,” Gandhi said.
Shortly after Gandhi’s presentation, his second since 7 August, the ECI took to ‘X’ to dismiss his allegations as ‘incorrect and baseless’. “In 2023 certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of voters in Aland assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the poll panel wrote.
❌Allegations made by Shri Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless.#ECIFactCheck
✅Read in detail in the image attached 👇 https://t.co/mhuUtciMTF pic.twitter.com/n30Jn6AeCr
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 18, 2025
Gandhi claimed Thursday that attempts to get names of voters deleted in polling booths where the Congress led came to light after a Booth Level Officer (BLO) noticed her uncle’s neighbour had filed an online application to have his name struck off the voters’ list. But it turned out that the neighbour—Godabai, aged 63—never filed any such application.
Gandhi alleged that someone created fake logins in Godabai’s name and attempted to delete the names of 12 voters. The cell phone numbers used for this purpose were not registered in Karnataka, said Gandhi.
He also played a video clip of Godabai where she could be heard saying that she had no knowledge about the issue. “Whose numbers are these? How were they operated? Where were they operated from? Who generated the OTPs to disturb the process?” asked Gandhi.
Under the rules, citizens can use Form-7 of the ECI to seek deletion of their names as well as those of others from the electoral roll. These claims are then scrutinised by the poll panel.
He also cited the example of a person called Suryakant, who was also present at the press conference. Attempts were made to delete names of 12 voters in 14 minutes using Suryakant’s name, Gandhi alleged. Among those whose names faced the threat of deletion was Babita, who too was in attendance at the Congress headquarters Thursday.
“Please try filling these forms and see how long it takes you,” said Gandhi, showing the example of one Nagaraj, under whose name two deletion applications were filed and submitted within 36 seconds, that too at 4.07 am in the morning.
“These deletions are not being done not by individuals but through the use of software. So a software is picking up the first name in the booth and using it to delete voters. So someone ran an automated program that ensured the first voter of the booth was the applicant. That same person got cellphones from outside the state and used them to file their applications. And we are pretty certain that this was done in a centralised manner, and it was done at scale. This was not done at a worker level. This was done at a call centre level,” he alleged.
A similar attempt was made to get 6,850 names fraudulently added to the electoral roll for Maharashtra’s Rajura assembly constituency, he said.
The Congress won the Aland assembly seat in 2023 by 10,348 votes, and lost to the BJP in Rajura assembly seat by 3,054 votes the next year.
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‘CID sent EC 18 letters in 18 months’
According to Karnataka government records, of the 6,018 Form-7 applications for Aland, only 24 were found to be genuine and the remaining 5,994 names remained on the electoral roll.
The investigation, as part of which the CID reached out to ECI, began after an FIR was registered on 23 February, 2023, against unknown persons for forgery, impersonation and providing false documents.
In March 2023, Karnataka CID wrote to ECI seeking details—particularly the digital trail—of the attempted deletions. However, till date, the EC has not shared those details, Gandhi said, adding that the poll panel shared partial information in August 2023 that did not help the probe.
“The CID of Karnataka has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission. And they have asked the election commission for some very simple facts: destination IP from where these forms were filled, device destination ports from where these applications were filed, OTP trails.
Why is EC not giving these details? Because this will lead us to where the operation is being done. And we are absolutely convinced where this is going to lead,” Gandhi asserted.
He also claimed that the highest number of attempted fake deletions were made in booths where the Congress was strong. Of the 10 booths in Karnataka where maximum names would have been deleted, eight were won by the Congress in the 2018 assembly elections, he said.
The Congress MP demanded that the ECI release details being sought by the Karnataka CID within a week. “Otherwise, we will know for sure that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who are destroying and attacking the Constitution,” he said.
Gandhi also claimed that sources from within ECI had started sharing information with the Congress. He had in August made a presentation on questionable additions of voters at Karnataka’s Mahadevapura Lok Sabha constituency, setting off a political slugfest.
The ECI had demanded that Gandhi make his submissions under oath in an affidavit. On Thursday, Gandhi suggested that he will make more such presentations over the next two-three months, including what he called would be akin to a “hydrogen bomb”.
Indian democracy, said the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been “hijacked”. Institutions like the courts should also take note of the “evidence of criminality” presented by him, said Gandhi, who requested the judiciary to step in even during his presentation in August.
“What I am doing here is not my task. My job is to participate in the democratic system, not to protect the institutions of India. The institutions of this country need to protect the Constitution. Democracy can only be saved by the people of India. Rahul Gandhi can come here and say this is the truth. But the people of India who I love can do it. The day people of India realise democracy has been hijacked, the job will be done,” he said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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