Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a fierce attack against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of shielding those responsible for what he described as a “planned attempt to destroy Indian democracy.” Addressing the media in New Delhi, Gandhi alleged that 6,018 votes in the Aland constituency of Karnataka were targeted for deletion through centralised software and mobile numbers outside the State. According to him, Dalits, Adivasis and minorities were disproportionately affected, revealing what he called a “centralised operation of vote theft.” He warned that these revelations were only the beginning and described the manipulation of voter rolls as an “atom bomb” on democracy.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge echoed Gandhi’s concerns, accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of “stone-walling” critical information required by the Karnataka CID to probe the voter deletion case. Kharge questioned whether India could still claim to be a democracy if the very machinery that ensures free and fair elections was dismantling it from within. Meanwhile, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the ECI was complicit in an “organised effort” to disenfranchise citizens. Rahul Gandhi also presented testimonies of voters whose names were wrongly deleted, highlighting the case of a 63-year-old woman, Godabai, and others who were unaware of applications filed in their names.
The BJP, however, dismissed Gandhi’s allegations as “baseless” and a reflection of his “frustration.” BJP MP Anurag Thakur defended the Election Commission, pointing out that Congress has lost nearly 90 elections under Gandhi’s leadership, accusing him of spreading falsehoods to cover repeated defeats. The Election Commission itself strongly denied the charges, terming them unfounded, while former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi criticised the poll body for rejecting the claims outright instead of ordering a probe. As the political battle intensifies, Rahul Gandhi has set a deadline for the CEC to release technical data—including OTPs and IP addresses—warning that his party will continue to expose what it calls a “vote chori machinery” undermining India’s democracy.
