‘When are you going to give evidence to CID’: Rahul Gandhi to CEC, doubles down on voter fraud claims

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, doubled down on his ‘vote chori’ or ‘vote theft’ claims, and asked Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar when he was going to submit evidence to CID. In a press conference earlier, he had claimed that several votes were sought to be deleted in Aland. He also accused CEC Gyanesh Kumar of protecting the culprits.

“Gyanesh ji, we caught the theft and only then did you remember to put a lock - now we'll catch the thieves too. So tell us, when are you going to give the evidence to CID?” asked Rahul Gandhi. He referred to a report by The Indian Express that said the poll body rolled out a new ‘e-sign’ feature on its portal and app that requires those who are seeking to register as voters or applying for deletion and corrections to verify their identity through Aadhaar-linked phone numbers.

Before the e-sign feature, not present till Monday, but available on ECINet portal on Tuesday, applicants could submit forms on the portal after connecting a phone number with an existing Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number with no verification required to check if the details belonged to them, the report mentioned.

In his press conference, Rahul Gandhi alleged misuse of online voter deletion forms in Aland constituency ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls. Gandhi had claimed in his press conference that 6,018 applications were filed impersonating voters, done automatically using mobile numbers from outside Karnataka. He added that CID had sent 18 letters in 18 months to the commission.

After the press conference, the ECI had swiftly fact-checked Gandhi’s claims, calling them baseless and incorrect. “No deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public as misconceived by Rahul Gandhi,” it said, acknowledging that, however, attempts were made to delete electors, and that a subsequent FIR was lodged in this regard.