Raghav Chadha returns to Delhi voter list amid controversy
AAP alleges Raghav Chadha's name was added to Delhi's draft voter list through illegal means.
A few days ago, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha complained that his name was removed from the draft voter list of Punjab due to political vendetta during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). However, his name has now suddenly appeared in the draft voter list of Delhi. This sudden political development has left the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in shock. The AAP has termed it a backdoor entry and illegal under the Election Commission's fraud.
It is noteworthy that Raghav Chadha, a Rajya Sabha member who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the AAP, had claimed a few days ago that his name was removed from the draft list prepared during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Punjab. Now, his name has been included in the draft voter list of Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged on Tuesday that Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has illegally registered his name in the voter list for the Rajendra Nagar assembly seat in Delhi.
AAP's national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda claimed that,
Chadha's name was added to the draft voter list of Delhi through “the back door.” According to him, the original list issued on August 31 contained the names of 746 voters, but later Raghav Chadha's name began to appear as the 747th.
Dismissing these allegations as baseless, Chadha said that,
he has followed all the rules and legal procedures of the Election Commission. He alleged that since joining the BJP, the AAP leadership has been continuously targeting him.
Chadha had joined the BJP in April this year after leaving the AAP.
Earlier, Chadha had stated that,
the Election Commission had shown him as transferred from his registered address in Mohali, Punjab. He termed it a political vendetta by the AAP government in Punjab.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi stated that,
the process of adding, removing, or changing a person's name in the voter list is based solely on Forms 6, 7, and 8.
According to the CEO's office,
the voter list of Delhi was frozen from June 16 to August 31 for preparing the draft list of SIR. During this period, approximately 2.14 lakh Form 6 applications were submitted for new voter registrations. However, the process of including these applications was not carried out while preparing the draft list.
After the draft voter list of Delhi was issued on August 31, the process of filing claims and objections began. Under this, 25,011 new Form 6 applications were submitted by September 7. By Tuesday, electoral registration officials had approved 700 applications across Delhi's 70 assembly seats. According to officials, Raghav Chadha's application was also included among these. The final voter list of Delhi is set to be published on November 4. According to the Election Commission's rules, those whose names are not in the draft list can fill out Form 6 during the claims and objections period. The names of approved applications are included in the final voter list. This process is the real reason for the controversy.
AAP's Delhi chief Saurabh Bhardwaj said that,
the last name in the draft list issued on August 31 for booth number 46 of the Rajendra Nagar assembly constituency was at serial number 746. Raghav Chadha's name was not there, but later his name began to appear at serial number 747 on the Election Commission's portal.
Bhardwaj questioned that,
has Chadha's vote been transferred from Punjab to Delhi? Raghav Chadha himself was saying that he is a voter from Punjab and will re-register his name there. How did his name get added here while the draft voter list was frozen? The Election Commission should clarify under what process this happened.
However, this is not the first time Chadha's name has been recorded in the voter list of Rajendra Nagar. In the affidavit submitted for the 2022 Rajya Sabha elections, he had himself stated that he is a voter of booth number 52 in Rajendra Nagar.
After reaching the Rajya Sabha from Punjab, he had transferred his voter registration to Punjab. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he also voted at a booth located in SAS Nagar, Mohali.
In response to AAP's allegations, Chadha compared the party to a “jilted ex-lover.” He said, “It seems that Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP are only concerned about me all the time. They are behaving like a jilted person who has been left behind.”
However, Chadha did not clarify how his name began to appear in the draft voter list of Delhi after it was issued. He only stated that he has followed all the necessary procedures of the Election Commission. Now, the final and clear answer to this entire controversy must come from the Election Commission.