Is Rahul Gandhi a British citizen, asks BJP after scrutiny of his Amethi nomination papers postponed

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday raised questions on Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s citizen and education qualifications after the returning officer postponed the scrutiny of his nomination papers from Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi. Addressing a press conference in Delhi, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao alleged that in documents related to a company in the UK, the Congress president has shown to be listed as a British Citizen.

"Rahul Gandhi's name has been shown to be listed as a British citizen in documents related to a company in the UK. Was Rahul Gandhi a British citizen?" the BJP spokesperson asked.

The BJP leader said that it was quite surprising that the Congress chief’s legal representative didn’t have any answers to the allegations raised by other candidates on the details provided in his nomination.

“I think it's a matter of great surprise that Rahul Gandhi's legal representative doesn't have answers to questions raised by other candidates on details given in his nomination. They have asked time to counter the allegations,” Rao said.

The attack from the BJP came after the returning officer of Amethi ordered postponement of scrutiny of the Gandhi scion’s nomination papers to April 22. In a notification, Amethi returning officer Ram Manohar Mishra said that Rahul Gandhi’s lawyer Rahul Kaushik had asked for more time in denying the allegations, thus, the scrutiny of his nomination papers is postponed till Monday 10:30 am.

The Congress president is contesting Lok Sabha elections from two seats - Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala. While Gandhi has been respresenting Amethi in the Lok Sabha since 2004, this is the first time he picked Wayanad as part of the Congress party's bigger south India outreach strategy.