Police investigations into alleged voter deletions ahead of the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections have uncovered potential involvement of a paid data entry team in a scheme to purge thousands of names from electoral rolls, sources revealed on Thursday. The probe, centred in Aland constituency—a stronghold of Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and his son Priyank Kharge—has led to the questioning of over 30 individuals, with five or six emerging as key suspects linked to a makeshift data center. This development reignites the "vote chori" (vote theft) controversy, first spotlighted by Rahul Gandhi, as opposition parties leverage it for upcoming Bihar polls.

Sources indicated that the operation involved VoIP calls and payments totalling a few lakh rupees, with operators receiving Rs 80 per successfully deleted voter. Requests targeted nearly 7,000 entries, primarily from marginalised communities that traditionally support Congress, including scheduled castes and tribes. A senior police official confirmed to PTI that "attempts were made in Aland to delete votes," prompting raids that seized electronic devices now under forensic analysis at labs. Karnataka IT Minister Priyank Kharge, representing the district, posted, X: "The latest findings confirm what we've been saying all along... over 6,000 genuine voters were struck off the rolls through a paid operation ahead of the 2023 elections in Aland. A full-fledged data centre was operating out of Kalaburagi, where operators were systematically deleting voters' names."

Compounding the revelations, hundreds of burnt voter records were discovered last week near the residence of former BJP MLA Subhash Guttedar in Kalaburagi district. Guttedar dismissed the find as innocuous, attributing it to housekeeping staff incinerating "waste material" and insisting, "There was no mala fide intention behind burning these documents. If we had ulterior motives, we would have done it somewhere away from our house." The Election Commission and BJP have vehemently denied collusion, labelling Congress claims "baseless" and accusing the party of spreading misinformation to undermine electoral integrity. The controversy traces back to September when Rahul Gandhi presented PowerPoint evidence of mass deletions, including a video showing forms processed in 36 seconds at 4 a.m. on December 19, 2022.

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The Karnataka Congress government swiftly formed a special investigation team following Gandhi's allegations, which also implicated the 2024 general elections. Aland MLA BR Patil had earlier flagged 6,994 fraudulent deletion applications targeting oppressed groups. As the probe unfolds, arrests of the suspects remain imminent, with police vowing thorough scrutiny. This scandal highlights vulnerabilities in India's digital voter management systems, managed via the Election Commission's online portals, where rapid submissions can evade checks. Amid national elections, such claims erode trust; experts call for enhanced verification protocols, including biometric audits, to prevent manipulation. The "vote chori" narrative now fuels opposition momentum, evident in joint rallies by Rahul Gandhi and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar, where voter rights campaigns aim to mobilise turnout ahead of November voting.

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