Desk Report:
Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, has made fresh allegations against the country’s Election Commission. He accused Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar of “protecting those who are killing democracy.”
According to the British media outlet BBC, Rahul Gandhi alleged at a press conference on Thursday that names were selectively deleted or added from the voter list, which gave the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an advantage in important elections in the state.
Rahul Gandhi claimed that he had “100 percent proof” of the allegations of vote rigging. But despite repeated complaints from the Congress, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not taken any action. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected Rahul’s allegations as “false and baseless.” The BJP has also rejected the allegations in a similar manner.
Rahul Gandhi has been making multiple allegations of “vote rigging” against the commission since early August. He first raised the issue at a press conference in Delhi on August 7. He alleged that there was widespread vote rigging in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. At that time, he claimed that the allegations were being made based on the Election Commission’s own data.
While the Election Commission and the ruling party rejected his explanation, opposition parties supported Rahul. Even several former Chief Election Commissioners have said that if there is any doubt about the credibility of the electoral process of about one billion voters in India, the world’s most populous country, it is the responsibility of the Commission to remove it.
At a press conference on Thursday, Rahul Gandhi gave the example of Aland assembly constituency in Karnataka. He alleged that at least 6,000 people from the Congress stronghold have been excluded from the voter list. He said that a large part of those excluded are from minorities and underprivileged communities. They are mainly Congress supporters. In the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, Congress candidate BR Patil won from Aland constituency and the Congress is currently in power in the state.
Gandhi said that the Criminal Investigation Department of the Karnataka Police has been investigating the allegations of names disappearing from the voter list since 2023. The investigators have written 18 letters to the Election Commission in this regard in 18 months. But they have not received any response yet. He said, “I urge CEC Gyanesh Kumar to release the details within a week.”
In response, the Election Commission said that it is not possible to delete someone’s name from the voter list online, as Rahul Gandhi has mistakenly assumed. The Commission claims that there were some unsuccessful attempts to delete names from the voter list in Aland area in 2023. At that time, the Election Commission itself filed a complaint with the police in this regard.
Rahul Gandhi also alleged that 6,850 names have been added to the voter list in Rajura assembly constituency in Maharashtra. Many of them are fake. However, no specific response has been given by the Commission on this allegation.
