New Delhi: Ramping up his attack on the issue of vote theft, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who "destroyed democracy". To buttress his allegation, he cited data from a Karnataka Assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress supporters were being systematically deleted.

In his fresh offensive against the Election Commission, Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said the poll panel must stop protecting "vote chors" and provide within a week information sought by the Karnataka CID in an investigation into voter deletions.

If not, it will be known for sure that it is complicit in the "murder of the Constitution", Gandhi alleged at a press conference at the Congress' Indira Bhawan headquarters here. And this, he said at the outset, was not the "hydrogen bomb" revelations that he had promised. That will happen soon.

Gandhi cited details of alleged attempts to delete 6,018 votes in Karnataka's Aland constituency in the run up to 2023 Assembly polls. He also gave the example of Maharashtra's Rajura constituency where he claimed 6,850 voters were added in a "fraudulent" manner using automated software.

"Same system is doing this. It is doing it in Karnataka, Maharashtra, it has done it in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and we have proof of it," the Congress leader alleged.

"Our demand is Gyanesh Kumar, do your job... You have taken an oath, you are India's Chief Election Commissioner, you must give evidence to the Karnataka CID," Gandhi said, directly taking on the CEC.

He also asked the CEC to “stop giving excuses” and release evidence to the Karnataka CID immediately.

According to Gandhi, local EC officials filed an FIR after the Congress’ Aland unit exposed the fraud and the CEC blocked the CID investigation.

Alleging that constitutional institutions are not doing their job properly, he said institutions within the country, including the legal framework, should step in.

“I am going to make a serious claim about Gyanesh Kumar. I am not saying this lightly, I am the Leader of the Opposition.