Chadha alleges political vendetta as name marked 'shifted' in Punjab draft rolls

Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab of political vendetta after his name was classified as "shifted" in the state's draft electoral rolls, despite his voter ID being registered in Mohali.

In a post on X, Chadha, who left the AAP for the BJP in April, said the classification does not appear to be a clerical error. He alleged that officials from the booth-level officer to the chief electoral officer, all of whom are Punjab government employees, were involved in the process and are susceptible to political pressure.

Chadha cited Paragraph 4(d) of the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) guidelines, which he says mandates the inclusion of public representatives like MPs in the draft rolls. He argued that this instruction was "willfully violated" in his case, asserting that the draft rolls are not the AAP's "private property."

He added that he is availing remedies under the SIR guidelines during the ongoing claims and objections process, ahead of the final rolls' publication in October.

A Punjab AAP spokesperson countered that the Election Commission, not the state government, conducts the SIR exercise. The spokesperson claimed Chadha has been living in Delhi and that maintaining his voter registration was his own responsibility. The AAP also alleged that Chadha was attempting to register as a voter in Delhi's Rajinder Nagar through a "backdated process."

However, a senior Election Commission functionary rejected the claim of any back-channel effort to include Chadha's name in Delhi's voter list, stating there was no such move. The official also noted that the non-inclusion of Chadha's name was violative of the SIR order's "protected list" provision.