BJP’s big charge: ‘Sonia Gandhi’s name was added in the electoral rolls three years before she became a citizen’

The BJP has alleged that Congress MP Sonia Gandhi’s name appeared on the electoral rolls even before she became an Indian citizen. In an attempt to get back at the Opposition for its claims of voter fraud in the Lok Sabha Election 2024, former Union Minister and BJP MP Anurag Thakur said Sonia Gandhi, who was born in Italy, was added to the voter list in 1980 three years before she became an Indian citizen.

Addressing a press conference, Anurag Thakur, reiterated the claims of BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya, who shared a photocopy of the electoral roll of polling station 145 in Safdarjung Road from New Delhi constituency in 1980. The roll had names of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi. Malviya claimed that Sonia Gandhi still had her Italian citizenship at that time.

"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 further said. Malviya said that after a row, Sonia Gandhi’s name was deleted from the voter list in 1982. It was added again in January 1983. Malviya pointed out that this time too, the registration was faulty and was done months before she was officially granted citizenship in April 1983.

During the press conference, Thakur said that the Gandhi family and Congress party have a tradition of raising questions about the Election Commission if they lose an election. “Indira Gandhi had said, voters are a bunch of fools. When Rajiv Gandhi lost the election, he blamed the ballot paper,” said Thakur, adding that Rahul Gandhi wants the elections to be conducted with ballot papers, while his father, Rajiv Gandhi has supported voting machines.

Thakur claimed that Congress and CPI together defeated the maker of our constitution, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, in the election. "Congress laid the foundation of electoral corruption in the very first election of 1952. Check the records: 74,333 votes were rejected, while Ambedkar ji lost by just 14,561 votes. Congress ensured that a constitution maker, a Dalit leader, was eliminated in the very first election. Imagine, the one who created the constitution was defeated by the Congress family through electoral fraud,” he said.