Rahul Gandhi Questions Voter List Revision Amid BJP's Counterclaims

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party and the opposition in the Lok Sabha, has raised concerns regarding the Election Commission's (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has countered by highlighting that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul's mother and a Congress leader, was added to the voter list before she became an Indian citizen. Amit Malviya, head of the BJP's IT cell, stated in a post on social media that Sonia Gandhi's connection to the voter list is fraught with serious violations of electoral laws. This might explain Rahul Gandhi's support for regularizing ineligible and illegal voters while opposing the SIR.

 

Malviya elaborated that Sonia Gandhi's name first appeared on the voter list in 1980, three years prior to her acquiring Indian citizenship, while she still held Italian citizenship. At that time, the Gandhi family resided at 1 Safdarjung Road, the official residence of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Registered voters at that address included Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Menaka Gandhi. He noted that the voter list for the New Delhi parliamentary constituency was amended on January 1, 1980, and during this amendment, Sonia Gandhi's name was recorded at polling station 145, entry number 388. This entry was a clear violation of the law requiring individuals to be Indian citizens to register as voters.

According to Malviya, after significant protests in 1982, her name was removed from the list, only to be re-registered in 1983. However, serious questions arose regarding her reinstatement. In that year's new amendment to the voter list, Sonia Gandhi's name was recorded at polling station 140, entry number 236, with a qualification date of January 1, 1983, despite her being granted Indian citizenship only on April 30, 1983. He stated, "In other words, Sonia Gandhi was registered as a voter twice without fulfilling the basic requirement of citizenship—first in 1980 as an Italian citizen, and then in 1983, just months before legally becoming an Indian citizen. We are not even questioning why it took her 15 years after marrying Rajiv Gandhi to accept Indian citizenship. If this isn't blatant electoral malpractice, what is?"

 

Last week, Rahul Gandhi initiated a campaign against what he termed "vote theft" facilitated by the BJP through the SIR. He provided numerous examples to support his claims, including instances of duplicate voters, fraudulent and invalid addresses, bulk voters or single-address voters, invalid photo voters, and the misuse of Form 6 for new voters.