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'Vote Chori Factory’: Rahul Gandhi Cites Karnataka and Maharashtra Cases To Claim Mass Voter Fraud, ECI Denies Charges
Moneylife Digital Team 19 September 2025
Economy & Nation
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is also the leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, on Thursday mounted a sharp attack on chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of shielding those 'destroying Indian democracy' by enabling systematic voter deletions and fraudulent additions. The election commission of India (ECI), in a swift rebuttal, dismissed the charges as 'incorrect and baseless' and questioned the Congress leader’s understanding of electoral procedures.
 
Speaking at a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, Mr Gandhi claimed that lakhs of voters, especially those supportive of his party, were being targeted across India through a centralised 'vote theft' mechanism. 
 
Citing the case of Karnataka’s Aland assembly seat, he alleged that 6,018 names were sought to be removed from the electoral rolls in 2023 through impersonation and misuse of mobile numbers traced outside the state. 
 
 
According to him, the operation was discovered by coincidence when a booth-level officer (BLO) noticed that her uncle’s name had been deleted without his knowledge. Mr Gandhi says the Congress had evidence that these applications were generated by software, pointing to a 'factory of vote chori'.
 
He also raised the case of Maharashtra’s Rajura assembly constituency, where, he alleged, 6,850 fake applications were filed to add names to the rolls. Calling it the 'same pattern, same factory', he argued that deletions and fraudulent additions were part of a systematic attempt to distort the electoral process in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 
 
“I am making a serious charge. The CEC is protecting vote thieves and those murdering democracy,” Mr Gandhi says, insisting that his claims were backed by '100% proof'.
 
 
The Congress leader brought on stage a voter whose name was attempted to be deleted and another whose identity was allegedly misused to file the application. Both denied any role, strengthening his charge that an external force had hijacked the voter registration system.
 
  
 
Mr Gandhi says the Karnataka crime investigation department (CID) had been probing the matter since 2023 and had written 18 letters in as many months to the ECI seeking technical details, including IP addresses and OTP trails, but received no cooperation. “If the election commission provides this data, it will directly lead us to those behind this operation. By withholding it, they are defending the killers of democracy,” he alleged.
 
He urged the poll body to furnish the information to the Karnataka CID within a week. Stressing that Thursday’s disclosures were not the 'hydrogen bomb' of revelations he has promised, Mr Gandhi says bigger exposures are yet to come. “This is a milestone in showing the youth of India how elections are being rigged,” he says.
 
 
The ECI, however, rejected the allegations, clarifying that no vote could be deleted online by any member of the public and every proposed deletion required verification and an opportunity for the voter to be heard. It acknowledged that there had been unsuccessful attempts to file fraudulent deletions in Aland in 2023, but stressed that the commission itself had filed a first information report (FIR) in the matter. “Rahul Gandhi’s claim of deletions through an online tool is misconceived,” the poll panel says.
 
 
Mr Gandhi’s renewed attack comes weeks after he alleged manipulation of more than one lakh votes in Karnataka’s Mahadevapura assembly constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which he had described as an 'atom bomb on our democracy'. 
 
At a rally in early September concluding his 'Voter Adhikar Yatra', he warned of a forthcoming 'hydrogen bomb' revelation that would, in his words, make prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi unable to 'show his face to the country'.
 
The controversy has sharpened political tempers in the run-up to state elections, with the BJP dismissing Mr Gandhi’s allegations as an attempt to undermine faith in the electoral system. The Congress, however, insists that the pattern of deletions and additions proves a larger conspiracy. Former chief election commissioners have also argued that it is the commission’s duty to dispel doubts about the credibility of the electoral process in a country with nearly a billion voters.
 
The Aland seat was won by BJP’s Subhadh Guttedar in 2018 and by Congress candidate BR Patil in 2023. In Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency, BJP leader Deorao Vithoba Bhongle secured victory in 2024. Mr Gandhi maintains that both examples demonstrate how automated fraud is being used to selectively alter voter rolls, threatening the integrity of elections.
 
The election commission’s rejection of the charges has done little to cool the political heat. With Mr Gandhi signalling further disclosures, the issue of 'vote chori' is likely to remain a flashpoint as Opposition parties challenge the neutrality of the electoral machinery and the credibility of upcoming polls.
Comments
angelo.extross
2 months ago
Evidence must be countered by evidence, and not by claims
Reply
Reghu S Nair
2 months ago
Web of lies to revert to dynastic rule!
Reply
parimalshah1
2 months ago
This Joker's own party has done vote-chori, and now one particular seat election is declared void.
Reply
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