Sonia Gandhi's Name Added To Voter List Before She Was Citizen, Alleges BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party - accused of 'colluding' with the Election Commission to commit voter fraud - counterattacked Wednesday by claiming ex-Congress boss Sonia Gandhi had been illegally, though briefly, added to the voter list 45 years ago, before she was an Indian citizen.

Ex-Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed Mrs Gandhi - born Sonia Maino in Italy in 1946 - was added on the list from 1980 to 1982, a year before she was an Indian citizen.

The allegations echoed what the BJP's Amit Malviya posted on X hours earlier.

Mr Malviya posted what he said was a 'photocopy of the 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?"

He claimed Mrs 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.

He claimed Sonia Gandhi's name was added in a revision of the voter list - for the New Delhi parliamentary constituency - before the 1980 Lok Sabha election.

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).

Her name first appeared… pic.twitter.com/upl1LM8Xhl

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 13, 2025

"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..."

Mr Malviya also claimed her re-inclusion in 1983 - after securing Indian citizenship - was also fraudulent. He claimed the cut-off date was January 1, but Mrs Gandhi became a citizen in April.

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Meanwhle,Mr Thakur also attacked Rahul Gandhi over his allegations of voter fraud in Maharashtra and Karnataka last year. The Congress MP is "lying (and) presenting incorrect numbers, he declared.

Congress Responds

Responding to the allegations, the Congress' Tariq Anwar told NDTV Sonia Gandhi had not asked for her name to be included in the voter roll, and 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..."

In fact, Mr Anwar said, Mrs Gandhi never made a request to be added to the voter list.

Pressed on the possible role of the central government of the time - led by the Congress - having pressured the poll panel into adding Mrs Gandhi, Mr Anwar declared, "The Election Commission is an independent organisation... it is a constitutional organisation... and it takes its own decisions."

"We (i.e., the Congress) are saying that today it has become a part of the BJP... it should come out of that and should work independently," he said.

Congress' Big 'Vote Chori' Claim

Allegations of voter fraud in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and potential fraud before the Bihar election, where a 'special intensive revision' is being held, has made major headlines over the past few months.

Mr Gandhi accused the Election Commission of voter fraud.

The opposition, led by the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, has claimed the EC and BJP worked together to ensure lakhs, possibly crores, of illegal votes were cast in last year's elections.

He claimed over 1.02 lakh illegal votes - including 80 from the same one-room house in Bengaluru's Mahadevapura - were counted from that Assembly segment, and that it cost them a Lok Sabha seat.

READ | Rahul Gandhi Shares Karnataka "Votes Stolen Proof", BJP Says "Bogus"

The opposition has also claimed that over one crore voters appeared on Maharashtra's voter lists months after the BJP's alliance lost the Lok Sabha election in the state.

The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance then won the Assembly election held four months later.

The 'special intensive revision' in Bihar has also become a flashpoint. The opposition has warned the exercise is meant to disenfranchise lakhs of people who might vote for them.

READ | "Bihar Voter Roll Revision Can Be Set Aside If...": Supreme Court

That matter is being in heard in the Supreme Court.

Poll Panel, BJP Respond

The Election Commission has responded sharply to all of these charges, insisting its procedures are transparent and are meant to ensure free-and-fair polls. It has also hit back hard at Mr Gandhi, demanding he state his claims in a signed affidavit and provide proof.

READ | "New Wine, Old Bottle": Poll Panel Jabs Rahul Gandhi In Voter Fraud Row

In a particularly strong rebuttal Friday, it said the Congress had "tried to mislead the Supreme Court" in 2018, referring to a petition by ex-Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath.

The BJP, meanwhile, has criticised Rahul Gandhi for "maligning a constitutional body".

And Home Minister Amit Shah mocked the Congress and Rahul Gandhi for expecting defeat in the Bihar election later this year and already looking for excuses. "You keep losing election after election... and now you are looking for an excuse for defeat even before this election," he declared in Bihar.

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