Bangalore, September 18 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Thursday that the revelations made by the opposition Lok Sabha leader and Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi have once again highlighted how Indian democracy is being disguised through arranged and centralized efforts in the name of ‘vote theft’.
Taking into his official X account, CM Siddaramaiah said, “Aland case in Kalaburagi is not a separate incident, but a window in a big conspiracy to manipulate the electoral role and deprive citizens of his right to vote.”
“Between February 2022 and February 2023, 6,018 Form -7 apps were filed through the Election Commission apps, which were to remove the names of voters’ Aland Assembly constituencies. After questioning, after interrogation, only 24 were real; 5,994 were fake. The stolen voter details, and mobile numbers were added.
“The entire families were targeted to remove the votes without their knowledge. A case was registered, and the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) launched the investigation,” Siddaramaiah said.
He said, “For 18 months, Karnataka CID has repeatedly asked the Election Commission for technical details – destination IPS, Device Port, OTP Trails – who are necessary to identify where this operation was carried out and who was behind it,” he said.
“The Election Commission of India (ECI) has refused to share this data. Today, instead of addressing these specific demands, the Commission separated the allegations as a” wrong and baseless “, claiming that there could be no vote to remove a vote. The Chief Minister asked.
He said, “The evidence presented by Rahul Gandhi shows that it was not a local mischief. The software was used to implement the first voter in each booth, fake numbers were inserted, and focused in the Congress strongholds,” he underlined.
He said, “Similar operations have been exposed in Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh-and earlier in Mahadevpura assembly constituency of Bangalore Central, where there was large-scale irregularities in the electoral role,” he insisted.
“It raises serious questions: Was Aland (Karnataka) only the tip of the iceberg? In 2018, the BJP won this assembly seat narrowly. In 2023, around 6,000 deletion was attempted. In 2024, the BJP again won this seat. How many such manipulation has been affected in other constitutions?” CM Siddaramaiah asked.
He said, “The truth is simple: BJP attempts to vote vote, and the Election Commission is stopping the investigation. By refusing to share data, ECI is protecting the guilty rather than protecting democracy,” he said.
“On behalf of the people of Karnataka, I demand that the Election Commission immediately hand over all the technical details – IP logs, device port and OTP trails – to CID within a week. If the commission fails to do so, it will be exposed as complex in the preservation of those who are destroying democracy,” said CM Sidaramaiah.
He said, “I want to tell the people of the youth of Karnataka and India: this is about your vote and your future purity. The Congress will not allow the vote Chori to succeed. We will continue this fight until the accountability is fixed and democracy is protected,” he said.
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