"Stop giving excuses, release evidence to Karnataka CID now": Rahul Gandhi to CEC Gyanesh Kumar

New Delhi [India], September 18 (ANI): After the Election Commission of India (ECI) dismissed Lok Sabha's Leader of Opposition's fresh allegations, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi urged the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to "stop giving excuses" and asked him to release the evidence to the Karnataka CID immediately.
In a post on X, the Congress MP alleged that an FIR was filed after their candidate exposed the fraud, but the CID investigation has been stalled due to the CEC's inaction.
"After our Aland candidate exposed the fraud, the local EC official filed an FIR, but the CID investigation has been - BLOCKED by CEC. The Karnataka CID has written 18 letters in 18 months requesting all incriminating evidence - BLOCKED by CEC. The Karnataka EC has sent multiple requests to ECI to comply with the investigation - BLOCKED by CEC," Rahul Gandhi said.
Gandhi claimed that if 6,018 votes were deleted, it could have impacted the election outcomes, and the Congress candidate could have lost the elections.
"Details of destination IP, device ports, and OTP trails have been withheld - BLOCKED by CEC. If this vote theft had not been caught and the 6,018 votes had been deleted, our candidate could have lost the election. CEC Gyanesh Kumar - stop giving excuses. Release the evidence to the Karnataka CID. NOW," the post added.
Earlier today, addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi claimed that there was an attempt to delete more than 6,000 voters' names from the Aland constituency in Karnataka.
"In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don't know the total number of votes deleted in the 2023 elections, but somebody got caught. It was caught, by most crimes, by a coincidence. What happened was that the Booth Level officer noticed that her uncle's vote has been deleted," he said.

After our Aland candidate exposed the fraud, the local EC official filed an FIR, but the CID investigation has been - BLOCKED by CEC.

The Karnataka CID has written 18 letters in 18 months requesting all incriminating evidence - BLOCKED by CEC.

The Karnataka EC has sent multiple… https://t.co/l6vOv2nNga

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 18, 2025

The Lok Sabha LoP further alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar is "protecting vote chors" and is fully aware of how fraud is happening in deleting and adding fake voters in the voter list. He stated that he has "10 per cent proof" that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is "protecting vote chors (vote thieves)."
He said that a group of people is using a centralised method through software and impersonating real voters and deleting their names from the voter lists.
Gandhi further claimed that he is "getting help" from people who are working for the Election Commission of India (ECI) in uncovering alleged vote fraud in the country.
"We have started getting help from inside the Election Commission. I am making it clear that we are now getting information from inside the Election Commission; this was not happening before, but now we are getting information from inside the Election Commission, and this is not going to stop. India's people will not accept this. Once the youth come to know that vote chori is happening, then their power will come," Rahul Gandhi alleged.
Responding to the claims, the ECI has called Rahul Gandhi's allegations "baseless and incorrect", highlighting that no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public.
"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 to be heard to the affected person," the ECI said in a statement.
The ECI also said that allegations made by Rahul Gandhi against CEC Gyanesh Kumar are baseless and incorrect.
The poll body has said 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 the 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 said.
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. (ANI)