Aland constituency in focus as Rahul slams EC over voter deletion attempts

The Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka, currently held by senior Congress MLA BR Patil, came into focus on Thursday (September 18) with Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi claiming that an attempt was made to delete 6018 voters from the electoral rolls in the Assembly segment ahead of the 2023 Karnataka assembly elections.

Rahul said that the attempt was foiled coincidentally after a Congress booth-level agent (BLA), Babita, was informed by a party worker that her uncle’s vote was being deleted. “The BLA raised a complaint and, as luck would have it, the vote chori got exposed,” said Rahul.

Although Patil lost the Aland constituency to the BJP’s Subhash Guttedar in the 2018 Karnataka assembly polls by a slim margin of only 697 votes, but emerged victorious from Aland in the 2023 elections by a margin of 10348 votes.

Also Read: Rahul attacks CEC Gyanesh Kumar, backs claims with hard evidence

Aland and Congress’ voter deletion charge

Aland came into focus in February 2023 when Patil was informed about several applications being filed for voter deletion in his constituency, even as the concerned voters were not aware of it. Patil, then swiftly lodged a complaint to the Election Commission.

“One of the Booth Level Officers [BLOs] received a Form 7 application to delete her brother’s vote, when he had not even applied. Her brother was my supporter. The application was made in the name of another voter in the same village, who was also not aware of it. This tipped us off,” said Patil as quoted by The Hindu.

Also Read: EC upgrades guidelines; EVMs to show candidates' colour photos

‘Systematic deletion of Congress voters’

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Rahul alleged that the names of 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. 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," added Rahul.

He 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.

Also Read: Karnataka to use ballot papers for local body polls, separate voter list

CID probe in Aland case and the EC

Noting that there is an ongoing investigation in Karnataka, Rahul said the CID has sent 18 letters in 18 months to the Election Commission and has asked for some very simple facts, such as the destination IP from where these applications were filled and OTP trails.

They are not giving it because it will lead us to where this operation is being conducted, he added.

He accused Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who are doing this.

"EC knows who is doing this. I want every youngster in India to know this. They are doing this to your future. When they are not giving this information, they are defending the murderers of democracy," said Rahul.

(With agency inputs)