The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya has accused former Congress president Sonia Gandhi of committing “blatant electoral malpractice” in the 1980s by being registered as a voter twice before acquiring Indian citizenship.
Citing extracts from the official electoral rolls of 1980 and 1983, Malviya claimed that Sonia Gandhi’s first appearance on India’s voters’ list took place in 1980, a full three years before she became an Indian citizen and while she still held Italian citizenship.
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… pic.twitter.com/upl1LM8Xhl
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 13, 2025
First appearance in 1980 while still an Italian Citizen
According to Malviya, Sonia Gandhi’s name was added to the New Delhi parliamentary constituency rolls during the 1980 revision, which used January 1, 1980, as the qualifying date for voter registration. At the time, the Gandhi family resided at 1, Safdarjung Road the official residence of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Until then, the registered voters at that address were Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Maneka Gandhi. The inclusion of Sonia Gandhi’s name at serial number 388 in polling station 145 marked her first official registration as a voter despite not being an Indian citizen, a clear violation of Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which explicitly bars non-citizens from being enrolled.
Deleted in 1982: Reappeared in 1983, still before citizenship
Following public outcry in 1982, Sonia Gandhi’s name was deleted from the electoral list. However, Malviya alleged that this was far from the end of the matter. In 1983, during another revision of the rolls, her name reappeared this time at serial number 236 in polling station 140.
The qualifying date for this revision was January 1, 1983. But records show that Sonia Gandhi was only granted Indian citizenship on April 30, 1983 — four months later. This, Malviya argued, meant that she was listed as a voter for the second time without satisfying the basic legal requirement of Indian citizenship.
“We are not even asking why it took her 15 years after marrying Rajiv Gandhi to accept Indian citizenship,” Malviya remarked in his post on X, calling the two instances “blatant electoral malpractice.” He also suggested that this history explained Rahul Gandhi’s alleged “fondness for regularising ineligible and illegal voters” and his opposition to the current SIR process.
Malviya backed his claims by sharing a photocopy of the 1980 electoral roll extract showing Sonia Gandhi’s name, asserting that this documentary evidence clearly established her registration as a voter while being ineligible under Indian law.
The allegations come amid an acrimonious political row over the Election Commission’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. Opposition parties, including the Congress, have accused the government and the EC of using the SIR to unjustly remove legitimate voters — particularly from marginalised communities from the rolls.
The government and the Election Commission, however, have maintained that the SIR is a standard administrative exercise aimed at maintaining the integrity of voter lists and ensuring that only eligible citizens are registered.
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