Centralised software used to delete voters in Karnataka, CEC protecting those involved: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that a centralised software programme was being used to systematically delete names from voter lists in Karnataka, and alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was protecting those committing “vote theft”.

The deletion process specifically targeted polling booths where the Congress was dominant, Gandhi alleged.

The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said that the Congress’ analyses of the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka showed that an unknown entity had used software to delete voters in a centralised manner.

He alleged that these voter IDs were deleted with the help of fake login IDs and phone numbers from outside Karnataka.

While it was unclear how many voters were removed from the electoral rolls through the process in Aland, 6,018 applications had been filed impersonating other voters, the Opposition leader claimed.

The persons had never filed the applications, he added.

Gandhi showed a video of a woman stating that she had not applied to delete anybody’s name from the voter list, although applications were found to have been sent in her name.

Another person, whose name was allegedly used to submit 12 deletion applications in 14 minutes, attended Gandhi’s press conference on Thursday. The man told reporters that he had not filed the applications and was not aware of...

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