Bengaluru, 24 Oct

Karnataka Minister MB Patil on Friday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take responsibility and order an inquiry into the alleged ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) found attempts to delete over 6,000 voter names in the Aland Assembly segment ahead of the 2023 polls.

Patil, who holds the industries and infrastructure portfolio, said the SIT findings vindicate Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s long-standing claims about electoral manipulation by the BJP. “Now the truth has come out. This is what Rahul Gandhi has been saying all along, how the BJP came to power, its sins and illegalities. The ECI demanded proof; now we have it,” he told reporters.

According to the SIT, six suspects were paid around Rs 80 for each deleted voter name, with 6,994 removal requests found largely bogus. CID sources said the deletions were planned systematically.

Patil accused the BJP and ECI of ignoring earlier warnings. “If this vote chori can happen in Aland, it can happen anywhere in India,” he said.

Aland, in Kalaburagi district, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s home turf, is represented by Congress MLA BR Patil, who won by about 10,000 votes and said he would have lost had the deletions succeeded.