CEC Gyanesh Kumar protecting ‘vote chors’, destroyers of democracy: Rahul Gandhi

Mounting a scathing attack on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (September 18, 2025) alleged the CEC is protecting those who are “destroying” Indian democracy.

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Mr. Gandhi claimed that 6,018 votes were sought to be deleted in the Aland constituency of Karnataka, using centralised software and phones outside of Karnataka. In the same pattern, 6,850 applications were aubmitted online for addition of names in Rajura constituency of Maharashtra. “Same Vote Chori factory,” he claimed.

The Hindu had reported recently on Karnataka CID’s probe into a systematic attempt to remove names of 5,994 voters from electoral rolls by forging Form 7, in the Aland Assembly constituency in Kalaburagi district, ahead of the 2023 Assembly election

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The Criminal Investigation Department of Karnataka has sent 18 letters in 18 months, but the CEC has not provided details of the deletion forms, said Mr. Gandhi.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said his revelations today were another milestone in demonstrating to the youth of this country how elections are being rigged. Mr Gandhi also made it clear at the outset that these were not the “hydrogen bomb” of revelations that he has promised and those will come soon.

Mr. 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 a software.

“ECI knows who is doing this. I want every youngster in India to know this. They are doing this to your future. When they are not giving this information, they are defending the murderers of democracy,” Mr. Gandhi said.