New Delhi: A day after the Election Commission (EC) termed Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of wrongful additions and deletions in Karnataka’s Aland and Maharashtra’s Rajura being facilitated in a centralised way through a software, as “incorrect and baseless”, the poll body issued a detailed note on Friday (September 19).The note curiously confirmed several of the Congress leader’s allegations, with the poll body admitting that FIRs were registered in both Aland and Rajura after suspicions emerged regarding the genuineness of such large numbers of deletions and additions respectively.The EC’s note on Friday however, denied that the poll body was not cooperating with the probe into the deletions in Aland, as alleged by Gandhi.The poll body’s response on Friday is in sharp contrast to its statement on Thursday, which it issued moments after Gandhi’s press conference, in which it called his allegations “incorrect and baseless” while admitting that an FIR had been registered in Aland.In its statement on Friday evening, the EC said “no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public”, although electors can fill Form 7 to apply for the deletion of an entry from a constituency.It also said that people’s names are not deleted from the rolls without issuing them a notice and giving them an opportunity to be heard.However, it went on to say that in Aland, 6,018 “applications in Form 7 for deletion were submitted online”.Upon verification, 24 of these were found to be genuine, while 5,994 were found to be incorrect. Accordingly, the 24 applications were accepted, and the 5,994 incorrect ones were rejected.The EC said that “suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications for deletion, an inquiry was conducted”, following which an FIR was registered by Aland’s electoral registration officer.The poll body’s statement in trying to debunk Gandhi’s claims curiously confirms his allegations.In his press conference on Thursday, Gandhi had said that “6,018 applications were filed, impersonating voters”.He also said that an FIR had been filed in February 2023, following which the Karnataka criminal investigation department (CID) had written 18 letters to the EC in 18 months, and that the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) too had raised the matter with the poll body but received no response.Gandhi demanded that the EC release evidence in a week’s time.While the EC’s statement did not make any mention of the 18 letters written in the last 18 months, it denied any lack of cooperation and said that the Karnataka CEO had handed over all available information to the Kalaburagi district police on September 6, 2023 so that it could complete its investigation.“The shared information included objector details such as Form Reference Number, name of the objector, EPIC number, mobile number used for login, mobile number provided for processing, software application medium, IP address, applicant place, form submission date and time, and user creation date,” the EC said.While Gandhi had accused the EC of stonewalling the probe, the poll body’s statement said that the Karnataka CEO “has been providing continuous assistance, including any further information and documents, to the investigating agency”.In his press conference Gandhi had alleged that 6,018 electors in Karnataka’s Aland constituency were deleted from the rolls through the impersonation of voters, the use of mobile numbers registered outside the state and the use of a software to systematically target booths where the Congress tended to perform well.Gandhi said that the software was used to identify those voters who were numbered serial number 1 in their booths so that deletion applications could be filed in their names.The EC’s response on Friday echoes the note put out by the Karnataka CEO on Thursday evening, which too had confirmed several of Gandhi’s allegations.In his press conference on Thursday, Gandhi had also alleged that there had been 6,850 fake additions in Maharashtra’s Rajura constituency.The EC’s note on Friday said that a total of 7,792 applications for new voter registrations were received in Rajura, and that an FIR was registered as the large number of addition applications appeared suspicious.“On verification, 6,861 applications were found invalid and got rejected,” it said.“Suspecting the genuineness of such a large number of applications for addition, an inquiry was conducted by Electoral Registration Officer, Rajura & subsequently Crime No. 629/2024 was registered at Rajura police station,” the statement said.