New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (September 24) escalated his attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Narendra Modi government over “vote chori (theft of votes)” allegations. Calling for Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar to resign, he alleged that Prime Minister Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were at the top of a conspiracy to undermine India’s electoral system.Gandhi, while addressing a press conference, put out a list of the people his party holds responsible for “destroying democracy” in India and said those responsible would “sooner or later face consequences”. He said Kumar should “turn approver”, implying that the CEC knows Modi and Shah were protecting him and the commission from public scrutiny and, therefore, he could provide evidence about the alleged electoral manipulation.“We are not going to let democracy be destroyed in India,” he said, “Everyone will be held accountable.”“We are sitting in a place where we have never been sitting since 1947: our elections are fundamentally broken, our vote has been destroyed,” said Gandhi. He included National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in this alleged conspiracy and referred to some as “pawns” in the larger plot.“This is not some small electoral problem. This is an attack on the constitution of India,” he said.Gandhi said Kumar should “turn approver”, implying that the CEC knows that Modi and Shah were protecting him and the ECI from public scrutiny and, therefore, he could provide evidence about the alleged electoral manipulation.“Nobody in their right mind in India does not suspect that the [electoral and institutional] system in India has been damaged,” Gandhi said. “We have enough information to prove this with certainty.”Screenshot from Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on September 24, 2026.The press conference follows an investigation published by Indian Express on Wednesday (September 23) and Thursday that there had been serious internal rifts in the ECI over the revision of voter lists as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exercise as well as regular administrative affairs of the commission.Also read: From Changes in Form 6 to SIR Voter Deletion Appeals, 2 Out of 3 Election Commissioners Objected 14 Times in 10 Months: ReportAs per the reports, two of the three Election Commissioners (ECs), Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, objected at least 14 times to decisions involving voter registration, deletion, restoration and SIR, including decisions allegedly taken without their consent over just ten months.The reports said they also objected to how the ECI Net system, launched by the Modi government in January 2026, functions, including their exclusion from crucial decision-making.The investigation also revealed that 97 voters in Goa successfully challenged their deletion from the draft electoral roll with the state election commission, but the commission’s software systems still failed to include them in the final electoral roll.The software allegedly prevented Electoral Roll Officers (EROs) in Goa from recording decisions restoring 97 voters, leading to allegations that the system is centralised and excludes state-level electoral officials from exercising their judgment during voter list revisions.Voter lists across the country are being revised since mid-2025, when the ECI launched a so-called pilot SIR in Bihar, which excluded 65 lakh voters from the draft rolls. In West Bengal, nearly 90 lakh were deleted (in the final rolls), including voters put under so-called adjudication. Uttar Pradesh saw the most deletions, with over 2.08 crore voters deleted from the final rolls.In Maharashtra, around 2.07 crore voters were deleted from the draft rolls and the final is yet to be published, while in Delhi, almost 48 lakh were deleted in the draft rolls.In all, 13 crore voters have been deleted in draft or final rolls since the SIR began.Congress party’s dissent on selection of election commissioners“From vote chori comes kanoon chori (judicial theft), and from kanoon chori comes institutional chori (institutional theft),” Gandhi said, meaning that the denial of votes leads to the legislature passing laws that do not serve the public, which in turn leads to institutional failure.The LoP laid out a chronology of alleged electoral manipulations, beginning with the December 2023 law governing the appointment and legal protections of election commissioners. The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, changed the selection committee for ECs, removing the chief justice of India from the panel.At present, the committee comprises of the prime minister and a Union cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister, and the leader of opposition.Gandhi mentioned on Thursday that he had recorded his dissent in a meeting set up to pick the next CEC after Rajiv Kumar vacated the post in February last year. The Wire had reported on this meeting, in which Gandhi had said that the selection committee was lopsided, and cited a challenge to the 2023 Act in the Supreme Court, which was to be heard in just two days.When Modi had requested Gandhi to review a note with five names of candidates to the CEC post, Gandhi had declined, questioning the composition of the selection committee, The Wire had reported.The Congress party on Thursday evening released that dissent note. It records that the “process of choosing the next CEC be deferred until the Supreme Court hearing and and this meeting be postponed”.Gandhi on Thursday referred to Section 16 of the Act, which says that no civil or criminal proceedings can be launched against a current or former CEC or election commissioner in a court for anything done or said in the discharge of their official duty.Also read: ‘Election Commissioners Nominated by Prime Minister Can’t be Expected to Defy Him’: Justice Dipankar Datta on Selection ProcessGandhi said that this provision protected Kumar, but that the CEC was aware of the alleged irregularities for “more than a year before” the two ECs began recording their objections, as Indian Express reports.He referred to a February 2025 allegation levelled by the Congress party that there had been theft of votes or “vote chori” in Maharashtra.Subsequently, in August 2025, Gandhi had alleged that voter lists in Mahadevapura in Karnataka had massive discrepancies. In September 2025, he raised similar concerns about voter lists in Aland in the same state. He has being stressing on “systematically” flawed voter lists in Haryana since November 2025.“These are deshdrohis (anti-nationals),” he said, referring to the CEC, prime minister, home minister and others in the top leadership of the BJP government.“A person who attacks the vote is a traitor. I’m not saying this lightly. For three years I’ve been saying this. I have used facts for it. The fact is that the prime minister and home minister have attacked the democratic structure of this country,” Gandhi added.Other opposition parties protestMeanwhile, five Left parties have also demanded the removal of Gyanesh Kumar, a halt to the SIR exercise and restoration of voting rights to those they said were wrongly excluded, following the IE revelations. They also called for changes to the appointment mechanism for election commissioners, saying it must include the Chief Justice of India.Joint Left Statement on #GyaneshKumar, #ECI and #SIR pic.twitter.com/Dw33CT6X9G— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) September 24, 2026They specifically highlight the centralisation of the voter database and restrictions on state and constituency-level officials, citing the Goa case and have called for a week-long agitation starting September 28 to Gandhi Jayanti, and appealed to non-BJP opposition parties, civil society organisations and citizens to join.Lok Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra also said on Thursday that “Gyanesh Kumar is not going to get away. Modi-Shah are not going to get away. Elections are being stolen. Crores are being disenfranchised by one rogue CEC aided by govt. This country will not accept this anymore.”This story was updated at 9:10 pm on September 24, 2026.