Following a news report about a new ‘e-sign’ feature rolled out by the Election Commission, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar introduced the measure for voter deletion only after the alleged “vote theft” in Karnataka’s Aland.

Earlier in the day, The Indian Express reported that the new feature on the ECINET portal and mobile application required those seeking to register as voters, or applying for deletion and corrections, to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers.

Prior to this, applicants could submit forms on the Election Commission application and portal after linking a phone number with an existing Electors Photo Identity Card number, or EPIC number. No verification had to be done of whether the details indeed belonged to them.

The e-sign feature was not present till Monday but could be seen on the ECINET portal on Tuesday while submitting forms, according to The Indian Express.

Sharing the news report on social media, Gandhi said: “Gyanesh ji, we caught the theft and only then did you remember to put a lock – now we’ll catch the thieves too. So tell us, when are you going to give the evidence to the CID [Karnataka Police’s Criminal Investigation Department]?”

The new feature comes just days after Gandhi on September 18 claimed that a centralised software programme was being used to systematically delete names from voter lists in Karnataka. He alleged that Kumar was protecting those committing “vote theft”.

In February 2023, a case had been filed regarding the alleged deletion of voters from the electoral rolls in Aland.

On September 18, Gandhi said that the Congress’ analysis of the Aland Assembly constituency showed that an unknown entity had used software to delete voters in a centralised manner. He alleged that these voter IDs were deleted with the help of fake login IDs and phone numbers from outside Karnataka.

While it was unclear how many voters were removed from the electoral rolls through the process in Aland, 6,018 applications had been filed impersonating other voters, the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha claimed. The persons had never filed the applications, he added.

Gandhi further alleged that the chief election commissioner had not responded to 18 reminder letters sent by the Crime Investigation Department and the state’s poll panel chief seeking Internet Protocol address, destinations and one-time password trails to establish who made the voter deletion requests.

In response, the Election Commission said that the allegations made by Gandhi were “incorrect and baseless”. The poll panel said that “no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by [Gandhi]”.

In 2023, “certain unsuccessful attempts were made for deletion of electors” in Aland and a first information report was filed by the Election Commission itself to investigate the matter, the poll panel said.

The Aland constituency was won by a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in 2018 and by a Congress nominee in 2023, the poll panel added.

On Saturday, Gandhi reiterated his claims that the Election Commission was not providing information sought by his party on the alleged discrepancies in Karnataka.

‘E-sign’ requirement

An applicant filling Form 6 (for registration of new electors), or Form 7 (for objecting to proposed inclusion/deletion of a name in existing rolls), or Form 8 (for correction of entries), on the ECINET portal now has to clear the e-sign requirement.

The portal asks the applicant to ensure that their name on the voter card used for the application is the same as the one on their Aadhaar card, according to The Indian Express.

It also asks them to ensure that the mobile number they are using is linked to their Aadhaar.

After an applicant has filled the form, they are shown an external e-sign portal hosted by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. This is operated under the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The applicant is then required to enter their Aadhaar number and then generate an “Aadhaar OTP [one-time password]” on this portal, The Indian Express reported. Subsequently, the OTP is sent on the phone number linked to that Aadhaar number.

The applicant will then have to consent to the Aadhaar-based authentication and complete the verification. Following this, the applicant is re-directed to the ECINET portal to submit the form.

The ECINET, launched earlier this year, is a platform that integrates and reorients more than 40 of the poll panel’s existing applications meant for voters and officials.

Alleged voter deletion in Aland

The first information report the alleged deletion of voters in Aland had been registered based on a complaint by Kalburagi Assistant Commissioner and Aland’s Returning Officer Mamatha Kumari.

The complaint was filed after former Congress MLA BR Patil alleged that 6,670 voters in 256 polling booths of the Aland Assembly seat had been illegally removed from the electoral rolls.

Subsequently, Election Commission officials conducted an inquiry, which revealed that applications had been filed through several government online platforms seeking the deletion of 6,018 voters from the rolls.

Of these, only 24 applications had been verified according to the procedure and approved, after which the names were duly deleted.

Scrutiny of 5,994 applications showed that the forms had been submitted by unknown persons with malicious intent, using multiple mobile numbers. Original voters were allegedly unaware that their names were being fraudulently removed from the list.

Kumari filed the complaint following the inquiry.

In December 2023, the Criminal Investigation Department was handed over the investigation.

On Saturday, the Congress government in Karnataka formed a Special Investigation Team of the Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the alleged illegal attempts to delete voters’ names.

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