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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, September 18, accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of “protecting people who destroyed Indian democracy.” Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Rahul alleged that there was a large-scale attempt to delete 6,018 votes in the Aland constituency of Karnataka ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections and that the Election Commission of India (ECI) refused to hand over evidence to the police.
Claiming that he had ‘100% proof’ of the irregularities, Rahul said the deletions were prevented only because a booth-level officer noticed her uncle’s name missing from the rolls and discovered that a neighbour had filed the deletion form on his behalf. “When she asked her neighbour why he had done it, he had no clue,” Rahul said, alleging that impersonation and misuse of technology were at the core of the operation.
According to him, the fraud involved filing Form 7 applications in bulk, impersonating genuine voters. “The people in whose names these forms were filed never submitted them. The filing was done automatically using software. Mobile numbers from outside Karnataka, from other states, were used to generate OTPs to delete voter names. Congress supporters were the target,” he alleged.
Citing examples, Rahul said that the name of a 63-year-old resident, Godabai, was used in an application to delete 12 of her neighbours from the voters list. Another man, Suryakant, was named in 12 applications submitted within 14 minutes.
Suryakant was brought on stage along with other affected voters.
“Without my knowledge, forms were submitted in my name to delete 12 voters. I did not fill any such form or send such a message,” Suryakant said.
Rahul also brought to the press meet a man named Nagaraj in whose name deletion forms were filled at 4 am. “Notice the time. This gentleman suddenly gets up at 4.00 to do this,” alleging the use of software in rigging.
He alleged that an automated program was used to carry out targeted deletions, specifically at booths where the Congress had previously led.
Rahul said an FIR was registered in February 2023 in Karnataka, and the probe was handed over to the CID. Over the next 18 months, the CID wrote 18 times to the ECI but received no response. The CID had sought details such as the destination IPs from where the forms were submitted, the device ports, and OTP trails.
The Karnataka Chief Election Commissioner also wrote repeatedly to the ECI. Rahul said only partial information was shared in August 2025. “They gave evidence that was not sufficient for the investigation to progress,” he said.
Rahul said that if it was deletion of voters in Aland, it was illegal additions in Rajura in Maharashtra. According to him, 6,850 fake online additions happened in Rajura. “There were deletions in Aland and additions in Rajura. The people who were added or deleted had no idea.”
“Do your work Gyanesh Kumarji. You have taken an oath. Hand over the evidence to the CID within a week. If you don’t, the youth of India will believe that you are hand-in-hand to destroy the Constitution,” Rahul said.
This is the second press meet by Rahul on lapses in the electoral process. After the previous press meet, CEC Gyanesh Kumar conducted a press meet in which he accused Rahul Gandhi of lying and asked him to file an affidavit detailing his allegations.