The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegation of online voter deletions by some individuals in Karnataka’s Aland constituency during the 2023 election, stating that the allegations made by the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition are incorrect and baseless.
In a statement, the poll body clarified that no vote deletion can be done online by a member of the public.
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Allegations made by Shri Rahul Gandhi are incorrect and baseless.#ECIFactCheck Read in detail in the image attached https://t.co/mhuUtciMTF pic.twitter.com/n30Jn6AeCr — Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) September 18, 2025
Software Used To Delete Votes
During a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, alleged that a centralized software-based system was used to impersonate genuine voters and remove their names from the electoral rolls.
“Let’s talk about how this is being done and why I’m saying and we are saying that this is being done in a centralised manner and this is being done not using individuals but using software. Look at the serial numbers. A software is picking up the first name in the booth and using it to delete votes. Someone ran an automated program to ensure that the first voter at the booth was the applicant. That same person got cell phones from outside the state, used them to file the application, and we are pretty certain that this was done in a centralised manner and it was done at scale. This was not done at a worker level; this was done at a whole simpler level,” he said.
ECI’s Clarification On Online Voter Deletions
The Election Commission, however, clarified that in 2023 there were only some “unsuccessful attempts” to delete votes, and a complaint in this regard was filed on the Commission’s own instructions.
“The ECI acknowledges that unsuccessful attempts were made in 2023 to delete electors in the Aland Assembly Constituency, and an FIR was filed by the ECI itself to investigate the matter,” the poll body said.
Deletion Of Over 6,018 Voters In Karnataka’s Aland Constituency
Rahul Gandhi alleged that somebody tried to delete over 6,018 applications in Aland, Karnataka during the 2013 election.
“Aland is a constituency in Karnataka. Somebody tried to delete 6018 votes. We don’t know the total number of votes that were deleted in Aland in the 2023 election. They are much higher than 6,018, but somebody got caught deleting those 6018 votes, and it was caught by coincidence. What happened was that the booth-level officer there noted that her uncle’s vote was deleted, so she checked who deleted her uncle’s vote, and she found that it was a neighbour who deleted the vote. She asked her neighbour, but they said I did not delete any vote. Neither the person deleting the vote nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote,” he said.
Opposition On Vote Chori
Opposition parties have consistently alleged that the Election Commission of India, in collusion with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been manipulating voter rolls by deleting and adding fraudulent entries during different elections. Rahul Gandhi has further claimed that such irregularities occurred in the Maharashtra Assembly elections as well as in several assembly constituencies, including the Mahadevpura segment in Karnataka.
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