AAP retaliates against Raghav Chadha by removing his name from voter list
Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha accuses AAP of engaging in vindictive politics.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha claimed on Thursday that his name has been removed from the draft voter list prepared after the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process. According to Chadha, the Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab,
The Election Commission has informed him that he is a voter who has been transferred from his registered address in Mohali. Raghav Chadha termed this a “clear political vendetta” by the Aam Aadmi Party government in the state.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party dismissed the allegations, stating that the entire process of revising the voter list is conducted by the Election Commission. The state government has no role in deciding who will be included or removed from the list.
SIR process, Raghav has accused the Aam Aadmi Party of removing his name from Punjab. He posted on x that,
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab has now taken its politics of revenge to the draft voter list. I am the current MP from Punjab, and my voter ID is registered in Mohali, Punjab. Yet, my name has been recorded as “transferred” in the draft voter list.
Raghav Chadha has raised several questions to the Punjab government and accused it of removing his name, as the Aam Aadmi Party is in power in Punjab and its officials are conducting the SIR process.
Furthermore, Raghav stated in this matter that,
Fortunately, this is only a draft voter list, not the final voter list. Names can be corrected during the 'claims and objections' process, which is still ongoing. The final voter list will be published in October 2026. I am already in the process of availing the remedies available under the SIR guidelines. This does not seem to be just a clerical error. It is clearly a case of political vendetta.
Recently, Raghav Chadha joined the Bharatiya Janata Party along with 6 others, so he has directly accused the Aam Aadmi Party of political vendetta regarding his name removal. On April 26, seven out of ten Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party, led by Chadha, joined the BJP in the upper house. The Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan accepted this merger on April 27.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party stated that,
It is a publicly recorded fact that Chadha is living in Delhi, not Punjab. If he is no longer residing in Punjab, it was his own responsibility to maintain or transfer his voter registration.
AAP also alleged that Chadha is attempting to transfer his voter registration to the Rajendra Nagar assembly constituency in Delhi through a “backdated process.” The party has demanded an investigation into the matter.
Punjab is among the 16 states where the voter list is being revised under the third phase of SIR. The final voter list is set to be released on October 12. The first phase of this process was conducted in Bihar in 2025. It was then extended to 12 states and union territories, including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, in the last months of 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Since the initiation of SIR, concerns have been raised that this process could lead to the exclusion of actual voters' names from the list and could also affect electoral outcomes. The Aam Aadmi Party retaliated against Chadha's allegations against the Punjab government by raising questions.
The party wrote on the social media platform X,
SIR process is conducted by the Election Commission, not the state government. Therefore, the Punjab government has no role in deciding who is included or removed from the voter list.
The party further claimed that,
It has received information from “Election Commission sources” that Chadha is attempting to register his name as a voter in Rajendra Nagar, Delhi, through a backdated process. If such a backdated process has been adopted or any illegal action has occurred, it should be investigated, and the whole truth should be brought before the public.
AAP also stated that if the BJP or any other person assisted in such an entry, that role should also be investigated. However, there was no documentary evidence available in the material for this report to support claims regarding backdated voter registration.
Meanwhile, Raghav Chadha accused the Aam Aadmi Party, stating,
The identification and verification work has been done by Punjab officials, and it is said that the Aam Aadmi Party wants to take political revenge through political pressure via state officials and is targeting them and other MPs who merged into the BJP through Punjab Police and administrative officials.
Raghav Chadha stated that since he left the Aam Aadmi Party, the party has been burning with anger.
“If my name was marked, then according to Article 4(D), I should have been included in the draft voter list. This directive was not ignored. There was a deliberate violation in my case. The Aam Aadmi Party may be running the Punjab government, but the draft voter list of Punjab is not its private property.”
There are reports of numerous names being removed from the voter list in Punjab. According to a report by Indian Express approximately 13.37 crore names have been removed from the draft list.