The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka has said that 6,018 online pleas over deletion of electors’ names in Aland assembly segment ahead of the 2023 polls were investigated two years ago and only 24 were found genuine. The poll panel added that the detailed information about the cases had also been handed to police. The response was poll panel’s direct response to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of systematic “vote chori”.Rahul Gandhi had on Thursday accused the Election Commission and its chief of protecting “vote chors”, saying data from Aland showed thousands of Congress voters were being targeted for deletion and demanding the poll panel hand over information to the Karnataka CID.
The Congress had cited details of alleged attempts to delete 6,018 votes in Karnataka’s Aland constituency in the run up to 2023 assembly polls.
The Election Commission earlier described those broad allegations as “incorrect and baseless”, saying no deletion can happen without giving affected electors a chance to be heard.