Overview

• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a CID-led Special Investigation Team, headed by the ADGP-CID with two SP-rank officers, to investigate alleged attempts to delete more than 6,000 names from Aland’s rolls before the 2023 state election.
• The Election Commission said 6,018 online Form 7 deletion requests were verified in Aland and only 24 were found valid while 5,994 were rejected, noting an inquiry led to FIR No. 26/2023 registered on February 21, 2023.
• Aland MLA B.R. Patil alleges thousands of fraudulent deletion applications (figures cited around 6,018–6,670) and claims Karnataka CID sought information 18 times without adequate response, a point the state CEO and EC counter by saying records were shared.
• Rahul Gandhi accuses Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of shielding wrongdoers, says the EC is withholding data from Karnataka investigators, and promises to present further evidence, while BJP figures including Shehzad Poonawalla, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini dismiss his charges as politically motivated.
• AAP reiterates similar voter-deletion complaints from New Delhi and alleges EC inaction, whereas the Commission says it sent a detailed 76-page reply, as other opposition leaders such as Shiv Sena (UBT) and the BJD urge the EC to publicly clarify the issues ahead of upcoming state polls.