Sonia Gandhi became voter before getting Indian citizenship, BJP alleges

New Delhi: The BJP alleged on Wednesday that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was registered as a voter before she became an Indian citizen, as the ruling party stepped up its counter-offensive amid the Opposition's charge of "vote-chori" against the government and the Election Commission.

"Sonia Gandhi's tryst with India's voters' list is riddled with glaring violations of electoral law. This perhaps explains Rahul Gandhi’s fondness for regularising ineligible and illegal voters, and his opposition to the Special Intensive Revision," BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya said on X.

He posted a copy of the electoral roll form of the official residence of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, claiming that her name was added during the revision of the rolls with January 1, 1980 as the qualifying date.

"Her name first appeared on the rolls in 1980 — three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship," Malviya claimed.

Until then, the voters registered at that address were Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi, he said, adding that Sonia Gandhi's name was added during the revision.

"This entry was a clear violation of the law, which requires a person to be an Indian citizen to be registered as a voter. Following an outcry in 1982, her name was deleted from the list — only to reappear in 1983," he said.

He added, "Even her reinstatement raised serious questions. In the fresh revision of the electoral rolls that year, Sonia Gandhi was listed at serial number 236 in polling station 140. The qualifying date for registration was January 1, 1983 — yet she was granted Indian citizenship only on April 30, 1983."

Her name entered the electoral rolls twice without meeting the basic citizenship requirement, he claimed. "We are not even asking why it took her 15 years after marrying Rajiv Gandhi to accept Indian citizenship. If this isn’t blatant electoral malpractice, what is?"

At a press conference, BJP leader Anurag Thakur claimed irregularities in voter registration in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour and Kannauj parliamentary seats and asked Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abhishek Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav to resign as Lok Sabha MPs, alleging they secured victory in elections with "vote chori".

Hitting back at Thakur's comments, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said it took the Congress six months to collect data for one assembly seat and the BJP leader's reference to so many Lok Sabha constituencies showed how connected the ruling party is with the EC.

"We also want to point out that what he (Thakur) has released today is evidence of a crime. We demand that this evidence be handed over within 24 hours so we can proceed with the investigation. We also want the electronic voter list of Varanasi, where the Prime Minister won by a very small margin," he said.