Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s name has been deleted from Punjab’s draft electoral rolls prepared under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with his entry classified as “permanently shifted”.
Chadha, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket in 2022 and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in April this year, has described the deletion as an act of “political vendetta”.
His name appears in the ASDD — Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate — list published on August 13. The reason recorded against his entry is “permanently shifted”.
Chadha is among around 20.66 lakh voters, accounting for nearly 9.7 per cent of Punjab’s pre-SIR electorate, whose names have been left out of the draft electoral rolls.
Reacting to the development, Chadha said his voter ID is registered in Mohali and questioned why he had been classified as having permanently shifted.
He also pointed out that the electoral rolls are currently only at the draft stage and said he is already availing himself of the remedies available under the SIR guidelines.
“This does not seem like a mere clerical mistake. This is a clear case of political vendetta,” Chadha said in a detailed social media post.
The MP alleged that the AAP leadership was using Punjab’s administrative machinery against those who had left the party.
“Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party, its leadership has been burning with anger. It has unleashed the Punjab Police and the Punjab Government’s administrative machinery against those of us who refused to remain silent,” Chadha alleged.
He further claimed that other MPs who left AAP and joined the BJP had also been targeted by the Punjab government.
“This wrongful classification is only the latest act in that political vendetta,” he said.
Chadha Left AAP, Joined BJP in April
The 37-year-old MP quit the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the BJP in April along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs.
While explaining his decision to leave AAP, Chadha had accused the party of having “completely deviated from its principles, values and morals”.
AAP, in turn, had accused him of being “opportunistic” and raised questions over his absence from key political battles and protests.
In his latest remarks, Chadha also referred to a provision in the SIR guidelines that provides for a “protected list” for public representatives, including MPs and MLAs. He alleged that the provision had been “wilfully violated” in his case.
He maintained that Punjab’s draft electoral rolls were “not the private property” of the ruling AAP.
Claims and Objections Open Until September 12
The claims and objections period for Punjab’s SIR exercise remains open until September 12, 2026, giving eligible voters an opportunity to raise objections or seek corrections to entries in the draft rolls.
The final electoral rolls are expected to be published in October 2026.
The deletion of Chadha’s name from Punjab’s draft voter rolls, however, does not by itself affect his eligibility to continue as a Rajya Sabha MP from the state.
The earlier requirement that a Rajya Sabha candidate must be registered as a voter in the state they represent was removed in 2003 through an amendment to the Representation of the People Act.
