AAP hits back at Raghav Chadha over voter roll deletion, alleges ‘backdated’ Delhi registration bid

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday accused Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha of attempting to get his voter registration made in Delhi through a “backdated process”, while rejecting his allegation that the Punjab government was behind the deletion of his name from the state’s draft electoral rolls.

The AAP, in a post on X, said the Election Commission was conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and that the Punjab government had no role in deciding whose names were included or deleted.

“It is a matter of public record that Raghav Chadha has been living in Delhi and not in Punjab,” the party said, adding that maintaining or shifting his voter registration was his own responsibility if he no longer resided in Punjab.

The party also alleged that Chadha was trying to get his voter registration made in Rajinder Nagar in Delhi through a backdated process. It called for an investigation if any such “backdated or unlawful exercise” had taken place.

A senior Election Commission functionary, however, rejected the claim of any back-channel effort to include Chadha’s name in Delhi’s electoral rolls.

“There was, and there is no such move whatsoever,” the official said.

AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar also criticised Chadha, saying the Punjab government was not conducting the SIR exercise.

“The Punjab government is not conducting SIR. Raghav Chadha should show some courage and question the right people instead of falsely accusing the AAP,” she said.

Kakkar further alleged that the SIR exercise had resulted in the exclusion of voters’ names in several states and questioned Chadha’s response to the issue.

The AAP said that if the BJP or anyone else had facilitated any backdated entry, it would pursue the matter “to its logical conclusion”.

The reaction came after Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, alleged that his name had been marked as “shifted” in the draft electoral rolls despite his voter ID being registered in Mohali.

“The AAP government in Punjab has now taken its politics of revenge to the draft electoral rolls,” Chadha said in a post on X, accusing the state government of using the electoral machinery for “political vendetta”.