New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s name has been removed from Punjab’s draft electoral rolls prepared under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive
Revision, with his entry marked as “permanently shifted”.
Chadha, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on an AAP ticket in 2022 and recently joined the BJP, alleged that the deletion was an act of “political vendetta”. AAP rejected the allegation and said the Punjab government had no role in deciding electoral roll entries.
The AAP government in Punjab has now taken its politics of revenge to the Draft Electoral Rolls.
I am a sitting Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, with my voter ID registered in Mohali, Punjab. Yet my name has been classified as “shifted” in the draft electoral rolls.
Thankfully,… pic.twitter.com/laAFAAWYiQ
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) September 3, 2026
Listed as shifted
Chadha’s name appears in the Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate list published on August 13. Officials recorded “permanently shifted” as the reason for removing his name. He is among 20.66 lakh people whose names have been deleted from Punjab’s draft rolls. The figure accounts for nearly 9.7 per cent of the state’s electorate before the revision.
Chadha said his voter ID remained registered in Mohali and questioned why officials had classified him as shifted. He added that the electoral rolls were still at the draft stage and that he had started using the remedies available under the SIR guidelines.
Chadha alleges vendetta
“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. He accused the AAP government of using Punjab’s administrative machinery against people who had left the party.
“Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party, its leadership has been burning with anger,” he said.
The 37-year-old MP quit AAP and joined the BJP in April alongside six other Rajya Sabha MPs. Chadha said he left because the party had “completely deviated from its principles, values and morals”. AAP, in response, accused him of being “opportunistic” and questioned his absence from major political campaigns and protests.
AAP denies state role
AAP rejected Chadha’s allegations and said the Election Commission, not the Punjab government, conducts the SIR. “SIR is conducted by the Election Commission, not the state government, so the Punjab Government has no role in deciding whose name is included or deleted from the electoral roll,” an AAP spokesperson said.
The party said Chadha had been “caught by a National Daily English Newspaper” allegedly trying to get his voter registration completed in Delhi through a backdated process. It accused him of attempting to shift the blame to AAP and the Punjab government.
AAP also claimed that Chadha lived in Delhi rather than Punjab and argued that maintaining or shifting his voter registration was his responsibility. “He cannot now blame the AAP or the Punjab Government for the deletion of a voter entry,” the spokesperson said.
Backdated entry alleged
AAP claimed it had received information from Election Commission sources that Chadha sought registration as a voter in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar through a backdated process.
“At the same time, the AAP has received information from Election Commission sources that Raghav Chadha is trying to get his voter registration made in Rajinder Nagar, Delhi, through a backdated process,” the spokesperson said.
“If any such backdated or unlawful exercise has taken place, it must be investigated and the entire truth brought before the public,” the party said.
AAP added that it would pursue the issue if the BJP or anyone else had helped facilitate such an entry.
Membership remains unaffected
The deletion does not automatically affect Chadha’s eligibility to remain a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab. Parliament removed the requirement for Rajya Sabha members to be registered voters in the states they represent through a 2003 amendment to the Representation of the People Act.
