Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s identify has been deleted from the Punjab draft electoral rolls ready below the Election Fee’s Particular Intensive Revision (SIR), along with his entry marked as ‘completely shifted’. Chadha, who was elected as an AAP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab in 2022 and joined the BJP recently, has alleged that the deletion was an act of “political vendetta” because the AAP is “burning with anger”.
Chadha’s identify seems within the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate) record printed on August 13 and the rationale recorded towards his entry was ‘completely shifted’. He’s amongst 20.66 lakh voters, or round 9.7 per cent of Punjab’s pre-SIR voters, whose names have been deleted from the draft rolls.
Reacting to the event, Chadha stated his voter ID is registered in Mohali and questioned why he had been labeled as ‘shifted’. The MP added the electoral rolls have been solely within the draft stage and that he was already availing himself of the treatments offered below the SIR pointers.
“This doesn’t appear to be a mere clerical mistake. It is a clear case of political vendetta,” Chadha stated in an in depth social media put up, alleging that the AAP authorities was utilizing the state’s administrative equipment towards those that had left the celebration. “Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Get together, its management has been burning with anger,” he stated.
The 37-year-old MP give up AAP and joined the BJP in April, together with six different Rajya Sabha MPs. Explaining his resolution, Chadha stated AAP had “utterly deviated from its rules, values and morals” whereas the AAP, in flip, accused him of being “opportunistic” and questioning his absence from key political battles and protests.
“Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Get together, its management has been burning with anger. It has unleashed the Punjab Police and the Punjab Authorities’s administrative equipment towards these of us who refused to stay silent. Different MPs who left AAP and joined the BJP have additionally been focused by Punjab Govt. This wrongful classification is barely the newest act in that political vendetta,” the MP stated.
Chadha additional identified {that a} provision within the SIR pointers making a “protected record” for public representatives, together with MPs and MLAs, had been “wilfully violated” in his case. He maintained that Punjab’s draft electoral rolls have been “not the personal property” of the ruling AAP.
The claims and objections window for SIR is open till September 12 and the ultimate electoral rolls are anticipated to be printed in October 2026.
Nevertheless, the deletion of Chadha’s identify from the Punjab voter rolls doesn’t, by itself, have an effect on his eligibility to proceed as a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab. The requirement {that a} Rajya Sabha candidate should be registered as a voter within the state they signify was eliminated in 2003 via an modification to the Illustration of the Individuals Act.
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