The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of voter list manipulation, terming them “incorrect and baseless”, stressing that votes cannot be
deleted online.
“Allegations made by Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless,” the poll body said in a statement, clarifying that “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 being heard to the affected person,” it added.
Addressing the controversy over alleged deletions in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly constituency, the ECI pointed out that it was the Commission itself that had flagged anomalies last year.
“In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for the deletion of electors in the Aland Assembly Constituency and a First Information Report (FIR) was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the statement noted.
The Commission also set the record straight on the constituency’s electoral history.
“As per records, Aland Assembly Constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil in 2023,” it said.
The poll body also released a fact check on the same.
❌Allegations made by Shri Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless.#ECIFactCheck
✅Read in detail in the image attached 👇 https://t.co/mhuUtciMTF pic.twitter.com/n30Jn6AeCr
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 18, 2025
WHAT EC SOURCES TOLD CNN-NEWS18
Earlier, the Election Commission sources had termed as “unfortunate” Rahul Gandhi’s remarks directly targeting Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, stressing that he took charge only six months ago and cannot be held responsible for alleged irregularities reported last year.
“Targeting the CEC by name is unfortunate. He has taken over only six months ago. Blaming him directly for alleged anomalies last year is unfair,” the sources said.
They pointed out that in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly constituency, which Gandhi cited in his press conference, the Congress party had in fact won the seat. However, Election Commission officials themselves had flagged anomalies in the voter list there and registered an FIR, the sources added.
On Gandhi’s charge of a “call centre-type modus operandi” being used to delete votes, the sources clarified that voter names cannot be removed from the rolls merely by filling up an application.
“Field verification is mandatory in such cases,” they said.
RAHUL GANDHI ALLEGES CEC PROTECTING ‘VOTE CHORS’
Addressing a press conference today, Rahul Gandhi accused Kumar of protecting ‘vote chors‘ and those who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from the Aland Assembly constituency to claim that the votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.
The Election Commission must stop this and provide, within a week, the information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions, Gandhi said at the briefing at the Congress’s Indira Bhawan headquarters in Delhi.
Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete votes from the Aland constituency in 2023. He also cited the example of Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, where he claimed voters were added in a fraudulent manner using automated software.
He claimed that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, and this filing was done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka.
Gandhi also called on stage a voter whose vote was attempted to be deleted, and the person whose name was used to get the deletion done. Both denied any knowledge of the same.
He said these deletions were being done using software.
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