Rahul Gandhi vs Election Commission: Voter Deletion Row Heats Up
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Election Commission of having engineered the mass deletion of voters before the 2023 Karnataka election. During a detailed PowerPoint presentation to reporters in Delhi this morning, he also said the state's Criminal Investigation Department had 18 letters in 18 months to the EC asking for relevant information.
The EC responded quickly and termed the allegations "incorrect" and "baseless". "No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public... no deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person," it said on X.
On specific charges of alleged deletion of 6,018 names from the voter list in Aland constituency, the EC issued a specific response. "In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in Aland Constituency, and an FIR was filed by the ECI itself to investigate the matter." The EC also pointed out the Congress won the seat in the 2023 election.
