Poll panel dismisses Rahul Gandhi’s allegations against CEC, denies deletion of Congress voters’ names

Following major allegations levelled by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi against the Election Commission of India on Thursday, the poll body hit back, calling his claims “incorrect and baseless”. Responding to Gandhi’s charge that names of Congress voters were being deleted, the Commission clarified that no voter’s name can be removed online by any member of the public.

The ECI in a statement said, “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 Rahul Gandhi. No deleting can take place without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.”

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The ECI also said that allegations made by Rahul Gandhi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar are baseless and incorrect.

❌Allegations made by Shri Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless.#ECIFactCheck

✅Read in detail in the image attached https://t.co/mhuUtciMTF pic.x.com/n30Jn6AeCr

— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 18, 2025

In a press conference at the Congress headquarters earlier today, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha had claimed that he has “100 per cent proof” that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is “protecting vote chors (vote thieves).”

Gandhi further alleged that a group of people is using a centralised method through software and impersonating real voters and deleting their names from the voter lists. However, the poll body responded by stating that in 2023, certain “unsuccessful attempts” were made to delete certain votes, and a complaint was filed on the order of the ECI itself.

“In 2023, certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of electors in Aland Assembly Constituency and an FIR was filed by the authority of ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the poll body countered Gandhi’s allegations.

The ECI pointed out that the Congress leader BR Patil won the Assembly Elections from Aland in 2023, while the BJP’s Subadh Guttedar won in 2018.

In the press conference, Gandhi alleged that there was an attempt to delete more than six thousand voters’ names from the Aland constituency in Karnataka.

“In Aland, Karnataka, 6,018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don’t know the total number of votes deleted in 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. What happened was that the Booth Level Officer noticed that her uncle’s vote has been deleted,” he said.

Opposition parties have repeatedly accused the Election Commission of working with the BJP to delete genuine votes and add fake ones to voter lists during elections. Rahul Gandhi has alleged that such fraud took place in the Maharashtra Assembly polls and in several constituencies, including the Mahadevpura seat in Karnataka.