The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday refuted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s fresh “vote chori” allegations, calling them “incorrect and baseless”. However, the poll body admitted that “certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of electors in Aland” in 2023.
In a five-point statement, the Election Commission said, “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Shri Rahul Gandhi.”
Referring to the Aland constituency in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi claimed that unknown people using software attempted to fraudulently delete as many as 6,000 votes.
“No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person,” said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
While rejecting Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, the poll body admitted that in 2023, “certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of electors in 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,” the Election Commission said.
What did Rahul Gandhi allege?
1. Vote chori in Aland
Talking about the Aland constituency in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi alleged that there was an attempt to fraudulently delete around 6,000 votes by unknown people using software.
“In Aland, Karnataka, 6,018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don’t know the total number of votes deleted in 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught by coincidence. What happened was that the booth-level officer noticed that her uncle’s vote had been deleted. When she checked, she saw that her neighbour had deleted the vote,” he added.
“When she asked the neighbour, he said that he is not aware of doing such a thing. So neither the neighbour nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote. As luck would have it, it got caught,” he added.
The Opposition has been repeatedly claiming that the Election Commission of India, colluding with the BJP, is deleting and adding fraudulent votes in the voter rolls in various elections.
The Congress leader has claimed that fraud has also taken place in the Maharashtra Assembly elections and in various assembly segments, including Karnataka’s Mahadevpura segment.
2. Election Commission ‘not cooperating’
On Thursday, Rahul Gandhi slammed the Election Commission for allegedly “not cooperating” with the voter fraud investigation opened up by the Karnataka Crime Investigation Department (Karnataka CID) in the Aland assembly segment in the Kalaburagi district.
Gandhi claimed that the investigation into the alleged fraud has been stalled for over two years as the poll body is not replying to the letters sent by the CID.
He further demanded that the Election Commission release the requested data within a week, as the Karnataka poll body had also requested it, but no reply was given.
3. Gyanesh Kumar ‘protecting vote chors’
Rahul Gandhi also accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of “protecting vote chors” (vote thieves).
Alleging that the Election Commission is aware of people who are fraudulently changing the voter lists, Gandhi said, “Last letter was sent in September (2025), a few days ago. No reply. This is the proof that Gyanesh Kumar is protecting vote chors.”
“But who are these people? Who are using software, in a centralised manner deleting votes of people. Election Commission, Gyanesh Kumar knows who they are,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The Congress leader also said during the press conference that there is a “group of people” who are systematically targeting certain voters who vote for the Opposition parties, and who primarily belong to the OBC, Dalit, and marginalised communities.
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