In tit-for-tat, BJP questions Sonia Gandhi's voter list history from 1980: ‘… before she became an Indian citizen’

THe Bharatiya Janata company (BJP) has launched a tit-for-tat assail on u.s. Congress, levelling similar “ voter turnout chori (theft)” allegations as Lok Sabha Leader of oppositeness Rahul Gandhi did last week. It has also raised questions over the timing of the addition of former party president Sonia Gandhi's name to the voter list.BJP leader Anurag Thakur, addressing a press conference on Wednesday, alleged that Congress and other opposition leaders won seats with the help of “ghuspaithi (infiltrator) voters”.Mounting an attack on the Congress specifically for opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Bihar, Anurag Thakur said the Grand Old Party looks at “one group” to secure their vote bank and accused it of “appeasement politics”.Anurag Thakur gave examples of alleged duplicate voters, fake addresses, manipulated age and mass voting in seats like Raebareli, where Rahul Gandhi is an MP from, and also in TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee's Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat, as well as Akhilesh Yadav's Kannauj constituency.BJP doubts Sonia Gandhi's voter list entryIn another attack, the BJP raised doubts over Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's voter ID too, wondering how the name of Rahul Gandhi's mother and former Congress president was added to the list “even before she became an Indian citizen”.“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 (SIR)," said BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya in a post on social media platform X.Her name first appeared on the rolls in 1980 — “three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship”, Amit Malviya alleged, sharing a scan of what appeared to be an extract from the electoral rolls.The Gandhis had not immediately responded to Malviya's allegations. Congress MP Tariq Anwar, when asked about the issue by NDTV, said the EC should be held responsible, not Sonia Gandhi. "It was the Election Commission that included her," he was quoted as saying.Malviya, in his allegations, said: “At the time, the Gandhi family lived at 1, Safdarjung Road, the official residence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Until then, the voters registered at that address were Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi. In 1980, the electoral rolls of the New Delhi parliamentary constituency were revised with January 1, 1980, as the qualifying date. During this revision, Sonia Gandhi’s name was added, appearing at serial number 388 in polling station 145.”He said the entry was “a clear violation of the law” which requires a person to be an Indian citizen to become a voter. "Following an outcry in 1982, her name was deleted from the list — only to reappear in 1983,” he further alleged, saying the latter addition was also before she got citizenship.This is only the latest in the Congress-vs-EC episode, which became a storm after Rahul Gandhi's press conference of Thursday, August 7, in which he presented what he termed an “atom bomb” of proofs.Gandhi particularly cited anomalies in some states like Maharashtra and Karnataka. He spoke of irregularities like “one crore mystery voters,” destruction of CCTV footage, thousands of fake voters, and refusal by the EC to share voter-related data.The EC has since asked Rahul Gandhi to share the purported proofs under oath, to which he has said the EC could simply check its own records.