Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday unveiled what he described as the long-promised “hydrogen bomb” of evidence to support his allegation of vote chori (vote theft) by the BJP with the connivance of the Election Commission, citing Karnataka as a prime example.
At a press conference in Delhi, where he presented a detailed and slickly prepared presentation, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha accused the ruling party of using software tools and fake applications to systematically strike names off the electoral rolls. Gandhi claimed that this manipulation was part of a larger design to subvert democracy.
Highlighting one instance, he pointed to the Aland constituency in Karnataka, where, according to him, at least 6,018 votes were targeted for deletion. “We don’t know the full extent of how many votes were deleted in Aland during the 2023 election. The actual number is much higher than 6,018, but this particular instance was exposed only by coincidence,” he alleged.
Gandhi explained how the alleged tampering came to light. A booth-level officer noticed the irregularity after discovering that her own uncle’s name was missing from the electoral roll. On checking further, she found that the deletion was attributed to a neighbour. However, when confronted, the neighbour denied making any such application, and the voter whose name was deleted was equally unaware. According to Gandhi, this showed that “some other force hijacked the process and carried out the deletion.”
Escalating his attack, the Congress leader accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of deliberately protecting what he described as “vote chors (thieves),” claiming that the Election Commission had failed in its constitutional duty and was complicit in undermining democratic rights.
