No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of public: EC on Rahul's claim

New Delhi, Sep 18 (PTI) The Election Commission on Thursday dubbed as incorrect and baseless the allegations made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that CEC Gyanesh Kumar is protecting "vote chors".

No deletion can take place without giving an opportunity to be heard to the affected person, the EC asserted.

Gandhi accused Chief Election Commissioner Kumar of protecting "vote chors" and people who have destroyed democracy, and cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted ahead of elections.

The EC highlighted that unsuccessful attempts were made, and an FIR was lodged and relevant details shared with the state CID.

"Allegations made by Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless. No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi," it said.

The EC pointed out that in 2023, "certain unsuccessful attempts" were made for the deletion of electors in the Aland Assembly constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of the EC itself to investigate the matter.

"As per records, Aland Assembly Constituency was won by Subhadh Guttedar (BJP) in 2018 and BR Patil (INC) in 2023," it noted.

Separately, responding to Gandhi's demand that the evidence relating to the Aland case be released to the Karnataka CID, the state chief electoral officer said, "All available information with the EC has already been shared with the SP, Kalaburagi, on September 6, 2023." He said the electoral registration officer of Aland received 6,018 applications in Form 7, which were submitted online using various apps such as NVSP, VHA, and GARUDA apps during December 2022.

Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications submitted online for deletion of electors' names in the Aland seat, verification of each application was conducted by the poll machinery, he said.

Only 24 applications were found to be genuine, and another 5,994 were found to be incorrect, he added.

Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted, and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and not deleted.

Based on the inquiry findings, the ERO lodged an FIR with the Inspector of Police, Aland Police Station, Kalaburagi district on February 21, 2023.

"Based on the instructions given by ECI, the CEO, Karnataka, has handed over to the Superintendent of Police, Kalaburagi district, on 06.09.2023, all the available information with ECI for completing the investigation.

"After providing the requested information, meetings were also conducted by the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, with the Investigating Officer and Cyber Security experts of the Police to review the progress of the investigation," the state CEO said in a statement. PTI NAB RHL