Election Commission dismisses Rahul Gandhi's 'vote deleted using software' charges
What's the story
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegations of voter list manipulation as "incorrect and baseless." The ECI stressed that no votes can be deleted online. In a press conference on Thursday, Gandhi alleged that 6,018 votes were attempted to be deleted from Karnataka's Aland Assembly constituency using software and phone numbers from outside the state. He also accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of colluding with those involved in these activities.
Twitter Post
ECI debunks Gandhi's claims
Election Commission of India tweets, "Allegations made by Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No Deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi. No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of… pic.twitter.com/9fUEX5HXXN
— ANI (@ANI) September 18, 2025
Gandhi
'CEC needs to stop protecting those destroying democracy'
"CEC Gyanesh Kumar needs to stop protecting the people who are destroying Indian democracy. We have given you 100% bulletproof proof here. EC has to release this data of these phones, these OTPs, within a week... In Rajura, Maharashtra, 6815 targeted voters were added. In Aland, we caught deletions; in Rajura, we got additions, but the basic idea is the same," Gandhi said. "It's the same system that is doing this. It's doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP."
Clarification issued
ECI clarifies on voter name removal
While the ECI clarified that no deletion can occur without giving the affected person an opportunity to be heard, it acknowledged some unsuccessful attempts to delete electors in Aland, which were flagged by the Commission itself. An FIR has been filed in the case, it said. The commission further clarified that field verification is mandatory for any voter name removal from rolls, debunking Gandhi's claim of a "call center-type modus operandi."
Allegations dismissed
Gandhi claimed deletions in Congress strongholds
Gandhi claimed that voter deletions were done in Congress strongholds and introduced a woman named Godabai, whose name he said was used to create fake logins for deleting voters. However, the ECI pointed out that Aland was won by Congress candidate BR Patil in 2023. This is the second press conference in Gandhi's series of allegations regarding "vote chori." In an earlier press conference on August 7, he accused the ECI of colluding with the BJP to facilitate vote theft.