The Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a strong counter to the Congress, mirroring the “vote theft” accusations made by Rahul Gandhi last week. The party has now turned the spotlight on former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, questioning how her name found its way into India’s electoral rolls in the 1980s, allegedly before she became a citizen.
At a press briefing on Wednesday, Union Minister Anurag Thakur accused Congress and other opposition parties of securing victories with the help of “infiltrator voters.” He also criticized Congress for resisting the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar, calling out what he described as the party’s vote bank politics and selective appeasement.
Thakur pointed to alleged voter list irregularities in high-profile constituencies, including Rahul Gandhi’s Raebareli, Abhishek Banerjee’s Diamond Harbour, and Akhilesh Yadav’s Kannauj, citing instances of duplicate names, incorrect information, and mass rigging.
Adding fuel to the fire, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya took to social media to claim that Sonia Gandhi’s name appeared on the voters’ list as early as 1980, despite her reportedly not holding Indian citizenship at the time. According to Malviya, the entry appeared during a voter list update using January 1, 1980, as the qualifying date, when the Gandhi family lived at 1 Safdarjung Road. He asserted that Sonia’s name was included alongside Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi.
He further alleged that the entry violated electoral laws, which require Indian citizenship to be eligible for registration. Malviya claimed her name was removed following controversy in 1982, only to reappear in 1983, again, he says, before her naturalisation as an Indian citizen.
The Congress has not officially responded to these new allegations. However, party MP Tariq Anwar, speaking to NDTV, stated that responsibility lies with the Election Commission, not Sonia Gandhi herself, as they were the authority that included her name.
This back-and-forth follows Rahul Gandhi’s explosive press conference on August 7 where he accused the Election Commission of large-scale electoral fraud in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, citing the presence of over a crore questionable voters and other serious irregularities. In response, the EC has asked Gandhi to submit his evidence under oath. Gandhi has replied that the Commission need only examine its own records.
