Rahul accuses CEC of protecting 'vote thieves', EC counters with data

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday firmly dismissed allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that votes of his party supporters were being deliberately removed from electoral rolls in Karnataka. The poll body said no wrongful deletion had taken place and termed Gandhi’ claims “incorrect and baseless”.

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Gandhi, who has repeatedly raised the issue in recent weeks, renewed his charge of “vote chori” at a press conference in Delhi and in a series of posts on X. Taking aim at the poll body, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha described the EC as an “election watchman” who “stayed awake, watched the theft, and protected the thieves.”

He further accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of shielding those who, in his words, were “destroying democracy”, Gandhi also warned that if the EC failed to cooperate with the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) within a week, the Commission would stand exposed as complicit in what he called the “murder of the Constitution”.

The Election Commission issued a detailed clarification in response to Gandhi’s allegations. Referring specifically to Karnataka’s Aland constituency, it explained that any elector can apply online through Form 7 for the deletion of an entry from the rolls, but such applications do not lead to automatic removal.