News Brief
Karnataka CEO Refutes Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Deletion’ Allegations, Says All Aland Case Details Shared With Police
Rahul Gandhi PPT
After fresh allegations leveled by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi about alleged irregularities in the Aland Assembly constituency before the 2023 Karnataka polls, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Thursday (18 September) said all information related to the case had already been shared with the superintendent of police of Kalaburagi.
The details were handed over on 6 September 2023, the Indian Express reported, citing the statement by the CEO.
In a statement, the CEO said that 6,018 applications in Form-7 were submitted in December 2022 via NVSP, VHA, and GARUDA apps, seeking the deletion of voter names.
“Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications submitted online for deletion of electors’ names… verification of each application was conducted,” it said.
According to the CEO, only 24 deletion requests were genuine while 5,994 were incorrect.
“Accordingly, 24 applications were accepted and 5,994 incorrect applications were rejected and not deleted,” the statement noted, adding that booth-level officers lodged an FIR on 21 February 2023.
The CEO added that, on the Election Commission of India’s instructions, “all available information with ECI for completing the investigation” was handed over.
“The shared information includes the objector’s details, including Form Reference Number, name of the Objector, his EPIC number and mobile number used for login and mobile number provided by the Objector for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, Form submission date and time, and user creation date," the statement noted.
According to the statement, meetings were also held with the investigating officer and cybersecurity experts to monitor progress, and “the CEO, Karnataka, has already been providing any other assistance/information/documents to the investigating agency.”
At a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday (18 September), Rahul Gandhi alleged there was an attempt to wrongly delete over 6,000 names in Aland in 2023, which was stopped, and an FIR was lodged.
He also stated that the CID had requested IP address and OTP details from the ECI, but they were not shared, which hampered the probe.
