ECI must release data of these phones, OTPs in a week, says Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged irregular additions and deletions to voters' list through centralised software manipulations, claiming thousands of examples from two assembly constituencies in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and accused chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who committed these irregularities. He alleged deleted voters were Congress supporters.

The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged 6,018 irregular deletions to the voters' list in the Aland constituency of Karnataka in 2023 state polls and 6,850 irregular inclusions in Rajpura seat in Maharashtra in 2024. He alleged similar deletions/additions had happened in other states as well.

Gandhi, however, clarified this was not his promised "hydrogen bomb" of expose on "vote chori" and that it would happen later.


At a press conference here, he alleged irregular deletions/inclusions were done in a centralised manner through a software by picking up the first name in the booth and using it to add or demand deletion of voters to the list.

"The chief election commissioner of India, Gyanesh Kumar, needs to stop protecting the people who are destroying Indian democracy," Gandhi said. "We have given you 100% bulletproof proof here. ECI has to release this data of these phones, these OTPs, within a week."

He alleged the same system was used to add voters in Rajura and delete voters in Aland. "The basic idea is the same. It's the same system that is doing this. It's doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP, and we have proof of all that," he said.

While he claimed having "solid proof" of 6,018 questionable deletions in Aland and 6,850 additions in Rajura, Gandhi - like he did in the August 7 expose on alleged one lakh plus fake voters in a Karnataka seat - placed only a handful of examples (three in this case) as proofs of irregular deletions. This even as he, like last time, held up before the cameras a pile of papers, claiming it contained "all proofs". But all those details were not released to the media.

The three proofs he presented included that of Godabai, 63, in whose name a fake ID was allegedly created to "attempt" deletion of 12 voters. Second case was of Suryakant, who allegedly deleted 12 voters from the list in 14 minutes. Third was one Nagaraj, who allegedly filed two deletion applications in just 38 seconds that too early in the morning.

ECI NOT GIVING INFO: Rahul

"There is an ongoing investigation into this matter (Aland)... FIR was filed. CID of Karnataka has sent 18 letters in 18 months to ECI, asking for some simple facts... (But) poll panel has not yet given any information... Why?... This is absolute solid proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who are doing this."