EC refutes Rahul's allegations, says details of Aland applications shared with Karnataka Police

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The Election Commission on Friday once again rejected the allegations of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted in a Karnataka constituency, saying no wrongful deletion of electors was done.

Gandhi on Friday reiterated his "vote chori" allegations and took a swipe at the Election Commission, calling it an "election watchman" who "stayed awake, watched the theft, and protected the thieves".

In a statement, the EC said although an elector of the constituency can fill Form 7 online to apply for deletion of an entry from that particular constituency, it does not mean that the entry gets automatically deleted merely by submitting the Form 7.

It said in the case of Aland in Karnataka, 6,018 applications in Form 7 for deletion were submitted online.

On verification, only 24 applications were found to be genuine, while 5,994 were found to be incorrect. Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted, and the 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected.

Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications for deletion, an inquiry was conducted and subsequently an FIR was registered by Electoral Registration Officer, Aland.

Based on the instructions of EC, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka handed over all available information with the Commission to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district, on September 6, 2023 for completing the investigation.

The shared information included objector details such as Form Reference Number, name of the objector, EPIC number, mobile number used for login, mobile number provided for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, form submission date and time, and user creation date.

The CEO Karnataka has been providing continuous assistance, including any further information and documents, to the investigating agency.

"As per records, Aland assembly constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023," it noted. PTI NAB ZMN