New Delhi: The ongoing row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar took a new twist on Wednesday with the BJP alleging that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s name was added to the voter list even before she had acquired Indian citizenship.
Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s IT cell, stated in a detailed post on X that Sonia Gandhi’s name first appeared on the electoral rolls in 1980. This was three years before she officially became an Indian citizen. Citing Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which disqualifies non-citizens from being registered as voters, Malviya argued that this inclusion amounted to a “clear violation of the law”.
“Her name first appeared on the rolls in 1980 – three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship. 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,” Malviya posted.
According to him, during the 1980 revision of the New Delhi parliamentary constituency’s rolls, with January 1, 1980 as the qualifying date, Sonia Gandhi’s name appeared at serial number 388 in polling station 145. This was in clear breach of the citizenship requirement, he claimed.
Following public backlash, Sonia Gandhi’s name was reportedly removed from the rolls in 1982, but reinstated in 1983 – again, before she was granted Indian citizenship on April 30 of that year. Malviya claimed that during a fresh revision of the rolls in 1983, her name was listed at serial number 236 in polling station 140, even though the qualifying date for inclusion was January 1, 1983.
“In other words, Sonia Gandhi’s name entered the electoral rolls twice without meeting the basic citizenship requirement – first as an Italian citizen in 1980, and then again in 1983, months before she legally became a citizen of India,” Malviya alleged.
“We are not even asking why it took her 15 years after marrying Rajiv Gandhi to accept Indian citizenship. If this isn’t blatant electoral malpractice, what is,” he added.
He called the alleged inclusion an “institutionalised theft” and connected the Congress’s criticism of the SIR process to what he described as the party’s historical leniency towards “ineligible and illegal voters”.
This comes at a time when Opposition parties, including the Congress, continue to criticise the Election Commission of India over the SIR exercise in Bihar.
On August 13, several Opposition MPs protested in Parliament wearing T-shirts referencing “124-year-old voter Minta Devi”, claiming her inclusion highlighted irregularities in the rolls. Minta Devi’s year of birth has been recorded in the electoral rolls as 1900 instead of 1990. Though upset about this, Minta Devi has lashed out at the Congress leaders for using her photograph in their campaign without her permission.
Both the ECI and the government have maintained that SIR is a routine administrative procedure necessary to maintain the accuracy and integrity of electoral rolls ahead of elections.
