ECI Dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Deletion Allegations as Baseless:

New Delhi, Sept 19: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday strongly refuted allegations made by Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, who claimed mass deletion of voters from electoral rolls in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly constituency. In his statement, Gandhi accused the ruling government of using software tools to selectively delete voters, particularly those believed to be Congress supporters. He alleged that over 6,000 voters were removed from the rolls in Aland, calling the move a politically motivated attack on democracy. However, the ECI, in an official rebuttal, termed the allegations “incorrect and baseless.” The poll body clarified that no vote can be deleted online by any member of the public, and every deletion follows a strict verification process, including giving the affected person a chance to respond. The Commission emphasized that no arbitrary deletion is allowed under law. “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi,” the ECI said. “No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.” Providing context, the ECI noted that in 2023, there were attempts to fraudulently delete electors’ names in the Aland Assembly constituency. These efforts were detected and blocked, and a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the ECI authorities themselves for further investigation. Addressing the issue, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka issued a detailed statement to clarify the situation. According to the CEO, in December 2022, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Aland received a total of 6,018 Form 7 applications — the official form used to request deletion of names from the electoral rolls. These were submitted online using platforms like NVSP, Voter Helpline App (VHA), and GARUDA. Due to the unusually high number of deletion requests, a thorough verification was carried out. The inquiry found that only 24 of the applications were genuine, while the remaining 5,994 were fraudulent or incorrect. Consequently, the invalid requests were rejected, and no voter names were deleted based on them. “To ensure accountability, the ERO lodged an FIR at Aland Police Station in Kalaburagi district in February 2023,” the CEO said. “Following ECI’s instructions, all relevant data and findings were handed over to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi, on September 6, 2023, for a complete investigation.” The ECI further noted that in the 2018 Assembly elections, the Aland constituency was won by BJP’s Subhash Guttedar, while in 2023, it was won by BR Patil of the Congress — contradicting the narrative that voter deletions tilted the balance. The Commission reiterated its commitment to maintaining the integrity of electoral rolls and urged political leaders to avoid spreading misinformation that could undermine public trust in democratic processes.

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