Rahul alleges CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting 'those destroying democracy'

EC denies Rahul Gandhi's claim on online vote deletion

Reacting to Rahul’s comments, the EC, in a social media post, dubbed his allegations as “incorrect and baseless”, adding that no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public.

"Allegations made by Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No Deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person. In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in the Aland Assembly Constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter. As per records, Aland Assembly Constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023,” stated EC in a post on X.

Rahul Gandhi says CEC must stop protecting 'democracy destroyers'

Rahul Gandhi alleges that the CEC Gyanesh Kumar should stop protecting the people who are destroying Indian democracy adding that they have concrete evidence to support the claim.

"The Chief Election Commissioner of India, Gyanesh Kumar, needs to stop protecting the people who are destroying Indian democracy. We have given you 100% bulletproof proof here. EC has to release this data of these phones, these OTPs, within a week... In Rajura, Maharashtra, 6815 targeted voters were added. In Aland, we caught deletions, in Rajura, we got additions, but 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 added.

Rahul Gandhi says Indian democracy has been 'hijacked'

Rahul Gandhi alleged that democracy has been hijacked adding that it has been going on for 10 to 15 years. He also said that the Indian democracy can only be saved by the people of the country.

"The shocking thing is that this has been going on for the last 10-15 years. This is a system, this is a structure. The democracy is hijacked. Democracy can only be saved by the people of India. Nobody else can save democracy. Rahul Gandhi can come here and say something and say this is the truth, but the people of India can do it,” he added.

Rahul says EC's response to Karnataka CID's letter had no information

Rahul Gandhi said that after an FIR was filed in Karnataka over the issue, the Karnataka CID wrote to the EC requesting all details of these numbers and these transactions almost immediately in March. But the EC in its response in August did not provide any information.

“FIR is filed on February 23. Karnataka CID writes to ECI requesting all details of these numbers and these transactions almost immediately in March. In August, EC gives a reply, doesn't fulfil any of the demands and doesn't give us the information. It doesn't provide the CID of Karnataka with the information that will lead them to their destination. January 24th, Karnataka CID writes to ECI again and says please send us full information. No answer,” said Rahul.

“Karnataka CID, by September 25, has written 18 reminder letters. While this is going on, the CEC of Karnataka writes to the Election Commission in Delhi and says there is a matter, please provide this information and the CEC of Karnataka multiple times asks the Election Commission. Now this is absolute solid proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting the people who are doing this. This is also absolute solid proof that this is being done in a centralised way, this is being done at scale and this is being done using large resources,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi claims Congress getting help from within EC

Rahul claimed that they are now starting to receive information from inside the Election Commission, adding that the protest over the issues will not stop.

"We have started getting help from inside the Election Commission. I am making it clear that we are now getting information from inside the Election Commission, and this is not going to stop,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi says democratic institutions should protect democracy, not him

Asked whether he will approach the court over the issue, Rahul said that what he is doing is not his work and, on the contrary, the task should be performed by the institutions in India, which are not doing it properly.

“Frankly, what I am doing here is not my work. My work is to participate in the democratic system. My work is not to protect the democratic system. That is the work of the institutions in India; they are not doing it, so I have to do it,” said Rahul.

“By the end of our presentation, which will take 2-3 months, you will have no doubt in your mind that in India, vote theft has been done state after state, Lok Sabha after Lok Sabha elections,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi alleges mass voter deletion in Karnataka

During the press conference, Rahul also called on stage a voter whose vote was attempted to be deleted and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done. Both denied any knowledge of the same.

He said these deletions were being done using a software.

Rahul Gandhi alleges systematic voter deletion in India

Rahul alleged that someone has been systematically targeting millions of voters for deletion across India.

"I am the leader of opposition and I will not say anything which is not backed by 100 per cent proof," Gandhi said. In Karnataka's Aland, someone tried to delete 6,018 votes and got caught by coincidence, he said, alleging that the names of voters of the Congress were being deleted systematically.

"The booth-level officer noticed that her uncle's vote got deleted and found her neighbour had deleted her uncle's vote. She asked her neighbour, who said he had no idea. It was found that some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote -- and as luck would have it, got caught," Gandhi said. He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka.

Rahul Gandhi alleges fraud in voter list data, cites EC silence

Elaborating further on the reason why he was bringing such allegations against the CEC, Rahul said that there is an ongoing investigation into this matter in Karnataka as part of which the Karnataka CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission, and they have asked the Election Commission for some very simple facts, the so far no information has been provided by the poll panel.

“Number one, give us the destination IP from where these forms were filled. Number two, give us the device destination ports from where these applications were filed. And number three, most importantly, give us the OTP trails because when you file, you have to get OTP. 18 times in 18 months, the CID of Karnataka has written to the Election Commission for this, and they are not giving it. Why are they not giving it? Because this will lead us to where the operation is being done, and we are absolutely convinced where this is going to go,” said Rahul.

Watch Rahul Gandhi's press conference

Rahul Gandhi, in his press conference, accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting "vote chors" and people who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.