BJP MP Raghav Chadha Enrolled as Voter in Delhi After Being Removed from Punjab Rolls

Days after he alleged “ political vendetta ” behind the deletion of his name from the draft Special Intensive Revision ( SIR ) roll in Punjab, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha was back on the electoral rolls Tuesday — but in Delhi. Addressing the media, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged that Chadha, who left the party to join the BJP in April, had got himself enrolled illegally as a voter in Delhi after being struck off the draft SIR roll last month in Punjab, where he had been registered as a voter since at least 2024. Responding to the allegation, Chadha, in a statement, said, “The facts are simple and straightforward. I have followed all applicable ECI guidelines and procedures and availed the prescribed remedies.” He said the allegations were “frivolous”. The Election Commission of India did not respond to queries from The Indian Express on AAP’s allegations. The office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar, in a statement, said that approximately 2.14 lakh Form 6 were received while the Delhi electoral roll was frozen for the SIR draft stage from June 16 to August 31. During the draft stage, new electoral registration forms are not included in the draft list. The CEO office said a total of 25,011 Form 6 had been submitted by electors in eight days, from the publication of the draft roll until Monday. Of those, 700 forms across Delhi had been approved by the EROs as on Tuesday, the CEO said. The statement did not mention Chadha’s status specifically. Chadha’s name had figured on the list of Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate (ASDD) voters who were deleted in the draft SIR roll of Punjab published on August 13, as reported by The Indian Express on September 3. In a statement issued on September 2, Chadha said that he was “in the process of availing the remedies provided under the SIR guidelines”. When The Indian Express checked the electoral registration status of Chadha in Delhi and Punjab on September 2, the ECI’s voter services portal showed “no result found”. On Tuesday, AAP Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Chadha’s name had been added to the rolls of booth number 46 in Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency in Delhi. A search for Chadha’s details on the ECI’s portal showed Raghav Chadha enrolled at serial number 747 of booth number 46. However, the draft electoral roll of that same booth published by the ECI on August 31 as a part of the SIR in Delhi ended at serial number 746, without Chadha’s name. Bharadwaj also shared an electronic copy of Chadha’s electoral details. The CEO office said that the new additions in the final roll begin from the last serial number at which the draft roll of the booth is frozen. “All Forms-6 submitted by electors for inclusion of their names during Pre-SIR period or during period of claims & objections are under process alongwith Forms 7 & 8. Once the Forms are approved, addition, deletion & modification will be reflected in the Electoral Database as the case may be,” its statement said. The EC’s SIR guidelines allow those left out of the draft roll to get back on the rolls by filling a Form 6 (voter registration form) in the one-month claims and objections period following the draft publication. All those Form 6 applications approved by the Electoral Registration Officers are then included in the final roll, which in the case of Punjab is due to be published on October 12, and for Delhi on November 4. According to the EC’s SIR guidelines’ paragraph 6, the EROs and Chief Electoral Officers are mandated to make the daily list of all Form 6 received available on notice boards and their websites, in the prescribed format known as Form 9, “so that citizens are able to see the list and lodge objections, if any, with the concerned ERO”. In the case of Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency, the Form 9s uploaded on the CEO website for September 1 to September 7 have a total of 205 names of applicants, which does not include Chadha’s name. According to Chadha’s affidavit for the 2022 Rajya Sabha elections, he had declared that he was registered to vote in Booth Number 52 in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar, Delhi. After he entered the Upper House as an MP from Punjab, Chadha shifted his electoral registration, and also voted in a booth in Punjab’s SAS Nagar, or Mohali, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on June 1, 2024. Bharadwaj said, “Raghav Chadha ji himself was claiming that he is a voter from Punjab and would get his vote recast there. The Election Commission had also frozen the Draft Electoral Roll. In such a situation, how did Raghav Chadha ji’s name get added to the voter list at the same booth in Delhi during SIR? Under what process was this new vote created? The Election Commission must answer.”