Congress leaders Priyank Kharge and Aland MLA BR Patil on Friday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the office of Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of misleading the public over its handling of the 2023 Aland voter fraud case. Their remarks followed a press conference by Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who had alleged “systematised and organised” attempts to delete over 6,000 votes in the constituency.
The ECI, in a swift rebuttal, said that no member of the public could delete votes online, as “misconceived by Shri Rahul Gandhi.” It said that “no deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person,” while admitting that in 2023, “unsuccessful attempts” were made to delete voters in Aland, for which an FIR was filed.
Priyank countered that the ECI had twisted Rahul Gandhi’s remarks. “We never said voter names were deleted online. But applications can be made online. In this instance, the Returning Officer of Aland lodged a police complaint that of the 6,018 Form 7s received, 5,994 were forged,” he said.
He also cited correspondence showing that the CEO’s office continued to seek technical details from the ECI well into 2025. “If all data had been provided in September 2023 as claimed, why did the CEO write letters on February 4 and March 14, 2025, forwarding repeated CID requests for ‘Destination IPs and Destination Ports’?” he asked.
According to him, the CID had raised five key queries, including whether OTP or multifactor authentication was used in the National Voters’ Service Portal (NVSP) and Voter Helpline App (VHA), how OTP authentication functioned, and whether certificates under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act were provided for IP logs. The investigators had also sought a presentation on how NVSP, VHA, and the Garuda app functioned from a voter’s perspective.
Priyank Kharge said the CEO’s office forwarded these queries to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 14, 2025. In that letter, the Joint CEO noted, "The investigating officer has requested to provide certain information related to the submission of online applications for deletion of names in the Aland Assembly Constituency. The investigating officer has also requested a certificate under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act by the person holding lawful control/user from where the logs were created during the activities generated, to be produced before the law enforcement agency (LEA).”
“Whom are you lying to? If you had already given all the information, why did you write this letter?” Priyank Kharge asked, stressing that this was internal correspondence between the ECI and its own Karnataka office.
Aland MLA BR Patil rejected the CEO’s claim that suo motu verification was carried out after suspicions were raised. He said he was first alerted by a party worker whose name was marked for deletion, after which he lodged complaints in February 2023, leading to the FIR filed by the Returning Officer.
On being asked why this was “vote chori” despite no deletions taking place, he said, “Just because timely intervention saved the voter names doesn’t mean it was not ‘vote chori’. We have found the stolen goods and recovered them, but not the thief yet. This was a serious attempt to disenfranchise voters. The ECI’s lack of cooperation amounts to shielding the culprits.”
BR Patil said he had urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Aland voter fraud case.