August 14, 2025

Get ready for a spicy political showdown! BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya made a jaw-dropping claim on Wednesday. He says Sonia Gandhi, the Congress leader, was listed as a voter in India way before she had Indian citizenship. This shocking allegation came just after Congress raised their voice against some issues in voter lists and opposed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar. Malviya took to X (formerly Twitter) and blasted, “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 SIR.” Pretty bold statement, right? Digging into history, he said Sonia Gandhi first appeared in voter rolls in 1980. But wait! She became an Indian citizen only three years later in 1983. At that time, she was still an Italian citizen. The Gandhi family lived at 1, Safdarjung Road—PM Indira Gandhi’s official home. Previously, voters there were Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi. Malviya revealed that during the 1980 rollout, with January 1 as the qualifying date, her name was added as serial no. 388 in polling station 145 of New Delhi. According to Indian law, only citizens can register as voters. So, adding an Italian citizen was a clear no-no! When objections popped up in 1982, Sonia Gandhi’s name was deleted. But surprise, surprise! In the 1983 revision, her name came back at serial no. 236, polling station 140—this time using January 1, 1983, as the qualification date. However, she got Indian citizenship only on April 30, 1983, months after this entry. Malviya summed up, “In other words, Sonia Gandhi’s name entered the electoral rolls twice without meeting the basic citizenship requirement- first in 1980 as an Italian citizen, and again in 1983, months before she legally became a citizen of India.” Not stopping there, he asked a fiery question, “Why did Sonia Gandhi accept Indian citizenship 15 years after marrying Rajiv Gandhi?” Calling this whole episode “blatant electoral malpractice,” Malviya’s words are bound to fuel the political fire further. Will this political drama affect Congress’s stand on electoral reforms? Only time will tell, but one thing is clear: the battle over voter rolls just got hotter than ever!

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Tags: Sonia gandhi, Electoral rolls, Bjp, Congress, Voter fraud, Indian citizenship,