New Delhi/IBNS: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has countered Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi's opposition to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and "voter fraud" claims alleging his mother and Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi had featured in the electoral rolls even before she became an Indian citizen.

In a long X post, BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya alleged the former Congress president, an Italian by origin, was included in the voter list twice before getting Indian citizenship in 1983.

Malviya wrote on X, "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 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."

"In 1980, the electoral rolls of the New Delhi parliamentary constituency were revised with January 1, 1980, as the qualifying date. During this revision, Sonia Gandhi’s name was added, appearing at serial number 388 in polling station 145. 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 added, "But even her reinstatement raised serious questions. In the fresh revision of the electoral rolls that year, Sonia Gandhi was listed at serial number 236 in polling station 140. The qualifying date for registration was January 1, 1983 — yet she was granted Indian citizenship only on April 30, 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. 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?"

Sonia, now 78, tied the knot with former Indian Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi in 1968.

Rahul Gandhi alleges 'vote chori'

In a press conference last week, Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged over a lakh votes were stolen with fake addresses, duplicate entries and bulk registrations of voters in a single address in the Mahadevapura constituency of Karnataka in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has categorically referred to Rahul's claim that one Shakun Rani, 70, had cast her vote twice in the elections as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) data.

Rahul last week gave a presentation to the media alleging how BJP had stolen votes in some constituencies to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"Narendra Modi is now the Prime Minister because of 25 Lok Sabha seats where votes were stolen," the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition said and added, "While majority of the seats are showing competitions, BJP is just sweeping some of the seats."

Following the allegations, the ECI asked Rahul to send the details of the voters whom he think were wrongly included or excluded along with a signed oath for each case.