KHARGE ACCUSES ECI OF 'STONE-WALLING' PROBE, BJP CALLS CONGRESS ‘FRUSTRATED'

Rahul Gandhi says targeted deletion of votes was done in Congress's stronghold through planned action.

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Mounting a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (September 18, 2025) alleged the CEC is protecting those who are “destroying” Indian democracy.

Mr. Gandhi claimed that 6018 votes were sought to be deleted in the Aland constituency of Karnataka, using centralised software and phones outside of Karnataka. He also claimed Dalits, Adivasis, and minorities are systematically targeted and are being disenfranchised.

The Hindu had reported recently on Karnataka CID’s probe into a systematic attempt to remove names of 5,994 voters from electoral rolls by forging Form 7, in the Aland Assembly constituency in Kalaburagi district, ahead of the 2023 Assembly election

Last month, Mr. Gandhi, citing data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, had claimed that over one lakh votes were “stolen” through manipulation in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment in Karnataka, and asserted that “vote chori” is an “atom bomb on our democracy”.

Rahul Gandhi accuses CEC of protecting democracy destroyers by deleting votes in Karnataka, sparking youth awareness on election rigging.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge accuses the Election Commission of “stonewalling” critical information to track culprits engaged in “mass voter deletion” in Karnataka’s Aland assembly constituency.