BJP’s counter-offensive against ‘vote-chori’, targets Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Stepping up its counter-offensive amid the Opposition charge of ``vote-chori’’ against the government and the Election Commission, the ruling BJP on Wednesday targeted former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, alleging that she was registered as a voter even before she became an Indian citizen.

“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,” BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya said on X.

He posted a copy of the electoral roll form of the official residence of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, claiming that her name was added during the revision of the rolls with January 1, 1980 as the qualifying date.

“Her name first appeared on the rolls in 1980—three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship,” Malviya claimed. Until then, the voters registered at that address were Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi, he said, adding that Sonia Gandhi’s name was added during the revision.

“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—only to reappear in 1983,” he said. He added that Sonia Gandhi was granted Indian citizenship only on April 30, 1983.

Her name entered the electoral rolls twice without meeting the basic citizenship requirement, he claimed. “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?” At a press conference, BJP leader Anurag Thakur claimed irregularities in voter registration in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour and Kannauj parliamentary seats and asked Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abhishek Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav to resign as Lok Sabha MPs, alleging they secured victory in elections with “vote chori”.

Hitting back at Thakur’s comments, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said it took the Congress six months to collect data for one assembly seat and the BJP leader’s reference to so many Lok Sabha constituencies showed how connected the ruling party is with the EC. “We also want to point out that what he (Thakur) has released today is evidence of a crime. We demand that this evidence be handed over within 24 hours so we can proceed with the investigation. We also want the electronic voter list of Varanasi, where the Prime Minister won by a very small margin,” he said.

Giving a slideshow presentation at the BJP headquarters here on an ‘analysis’ of electoral rolls in these constituencies represented by opposition leaders, Anurag Thakur also flagged “irregularities” in the voter registration in Kolathur assembly seat in Tami Nadu and Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh and asked Chief Minister and DMK supremo M K Stalin and SP leader Dimple Yadav to resign for “rigging” election. He slammed the Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party and DMK leaders for raising questions on the Election Commission and accused them of running a vicious propaganda against the special intensive revision (SIR) of the elector rolls, which is currently underway in Bihar and would be launched in other states, to protect their “vote bank of illegal Bangladeshi infiltration” and other “intruders”.

The Congress and other opposition parties are running the campaign against the poll panel to steal the mandate of “honest and genuine Indian citizens” for their appeasement politics while compromising the national security, he charged. Thakur claimed irregularities in the voters’ registration in Gandhi’s Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency and asked the Congress leader if he did “vote chori” to get elected from this seat in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 parliamentary elections.

About 2.99 lakh “doubtful voters” were registered in the Rae Bareli constituency, Thakur alleged.

Of them, about 19,512 entries are duplicate voters, 71,977 voters have fake addresses, 15,853 voters showed mixed households, and 92,747 voters were listed via mass addition, he claimed. The BJP leader said about 93,499 “doubtful voters” were registered in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, from where Priyanka Gandhi was elected. In the electoral roll of Tamil Nadu’s Kolathur assembly seat, from where Stalin won, there were 19,776 doubtful voters, with 9,133 voters giving fake addresses, he said, asking the DMK chief if he will resign for such irregularities in the voters’ registration.With Agency Inputs