BJP's counter to Rahul Gandhi's ‘Vote Chori' charge - ‘Sonia Gandhi was on electoral rolls before Indian citizenship'

Mint

3 days ago

The Bharatiya Janata Party launched a counterattack on the Congress party on Wednesday by claiming that the former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had been illegally, though briefly, added to the voter list 45 years ago, before she was an Indian citizen.
Former Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed Gandhi—born Sonia Maino in Italy in 1946 — was added to the list from 1980 to 1982, a year before she became an Indian citizen, NDTV reported.
The allegation comes amid 'vote chori' charges by Rahul Gandhi, accusing the Election Commission of India of colluding with the BJP
Thakur's allegations were first shared by BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya, who had posted on X hours earlier.
Sharing a 'photocopy of what appeared to be an extract from electoral rolls of 1980, indicating Sonia Gandhi was a voter when she did not yet acquire the citizenship of Bharat'. "If this isn't blatant electoral malpractice, what is?"
Malviya claimed Gandhi, who married Rajiv Gandhi in 1968, had been added to the voter list while the Gandhi family lived at the official residence of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In response, Congress leader Tariq Anwar told NDTV that Sonia Gandhi had not asked for her name to be included in the voter roll. Anwar said that it was the poll body officials of the time who did so.
"See... the Election Commission is responsible. Sonia Gandhi did not say 'my name should be included in the voter registration list'. In the end it was the Election Commission that included her...," he said.
Anwar said, Gandhi never made a request to be added to the voter list.
The BJP also alleged Congress defeated Bhimrao Ambedkar, regarded as the father of the Indian Constitution, in the 1952 general election through electoral fraud.
If we start from 1952, Congress and CPI together defeated Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, a constitution maker and a saint-like leader, in the election. Congress laid the foundation of electoral corruption in the very first election of 1952," BJP MP Anurag Thakur said at a press conference held in the party's headquarters here.
"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 added.
Sonia Gandhi did not say 'my name should be included in the voter registration list'.
The BJP MP alleged that Rahul Gandhi and his family had a history of questioning the Election Commission when they lost elections.
"This family and party have had a tradition from the beginning that if you lose an election, you raise questions about the Election Commission, the voters, or the functioning of the Election Commission. Indira Gandhi had said, Voters are a bunch of fools. When Rajiv Gandhi lost the election, he blamed the ballot paper. Rahul Gandhi's father used to say, conduct elections with voting machines, and Rahul Gandhi says, conduct elections with ballot papers," he said.