New Delhi [India], September 18 (ANI): Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held a news conference in New Delhi and accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting 'people who are destroying Indian democracy'. Although the Congress leader clarified that the so called 'Hydrogen Bomb' was still expected he claimed that a 'certain group of people' are systematically cutting the votes of minority groups who specifically vote for the Congress.

'I am going to show the youth, the people, proof that is black and white, absolutely clear that Chief Election Commissioner of India is protecting people who have destroyed Indian democracy. I will also show you the methods by which votes are added, deleted and show you how it is done,' Rahul Gandhi said during a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Indira Bhawan.

The Congress leader further claimed that atleast 6 thousand votes have been deleted in the Aland Assembly constituency segment in Karnataka. Earlier, in a previous press conference, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the assembly segment of Mahadevpura in the same state also had fraud votes.

'In election after election, someone, some group of people have been systematically targeting voters for deletions across India. Different communities, mainly who are voting for opposition, Dalits, OBCs, adivasis, minorities are specifically targeted who vote for the Opposition. We had heard this many times, and now we found 100 per cent proof of it. I am not going to say anything on this stage that is not backed up by 100 per cent proof. I am somebody who loves my country, Constitution, the democratic process and I am protecting that process. I am not going to be based on 100 per cent proof that you can determine,' he added.

Talking about the Aland constituency in Karnataka he alleged that around 6 thousand votes were deleted fraudulently by unknown people who used software and impersonated real voters.

'In Aland, Karnataka, 6018 votes, somebody tried to delete these votes. We don't know the total number of votes deleted in 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. When she checked she saw that her neighbour had deleted the vote,' he added.

'When she asked the neighbour, he said that he is not aware of doing such a thing. So neither the neighbour nor the person whose vote was deleted knew. Some other force hijacked the process and deleted the vote. As luck would have it, it got caught,' he said.

Detailing the alleged fraud, the Congress leader said, 'In Aland, 6 thousand applications were filed impersonating voters, the people who filed these applications never filed them. The filing was done using software, mobile numbers outside Karnataka were used to delete numbers in Aland and it was done targeting Congress voters.'

The LoP Lok Sabha said earlier that this is not the 'H bomb' of evidence which he has been previously talking about, and that evidence will be revealed later.

The Opposition parties have been repeatedly claiming that the Election Commission of India, colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is deleting and adding fraudulent votes in the voter rolls in various elections. The Congress leader has claimed that fraud has taken place in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, and also in various assembly segments, including in Karnataka's Mahadevpura segement.

In return, the ECI has asked the party leader to sign an affidavit and submit proof. After Gandhi's press conference, the poll panel also held a press conference where they answered various questions on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision in Bihar and other allegations raised by the Opposition. (ANI)