Rahul’s ‘vote theft’ presser leaves Prayagraj man besieged with calls

A resident of Prayagraj has found himself at the centre of unwanted attention after his mobile number was mentioned during Rahul Gandhi’s press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

Anjani Mishra, who runs a Common Service Centre on Meja Road in Meja tehsil, says he has been receiving relentless phone calls from across the country since the Congress leader’s remarks. By Friday afternoon, Mishra claimed the number of calls had crossed 300. “My phone has been ringing non-stop. People are asking me about vote theft. I am tired of explaining that I have nothing to do with this. I will soon file a police complaint against Rahul Gandhi,” he said.

Mishra said he has been using this number for 15 years. “I don’t know how Rahul Gandhi ended up mentioning it at a press conference. But now this number has become a source of trouble for me,” he added.

The episode unfolded as Gandhi intensified his campaign on alleged voter deletions. At his press briefing, the Leader of Opposition accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of shielding those who, in his words, had “destroyed democracy.” To support his claim, Gandhi cited data from a Karnataka assembly constituency, alleging that Congress supporters’ names were being deliberately removed from voter rolls.

He went on to say that a large-scale attempt at voter manipulation in Karnataka, claiming that 6,018 names were marked for deletion in the Aland constituency through a centralised software system. He said the operation was being run with mobile phones traced outside the state, while showing mobile numbers at the press conference.

The Election Commission swiftly rebutted the charges, calling them “incorrect and baseless.”

In a statement, the panel clarified that “no deletion of any vote can be done online by any member of the public, as misconceived by Gandhi.”