New Delhi, September 3, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday rejected Rajya Sabha MP P Raghav Chadha’s allegation of political vendetta over the deletion of his name from Punjab’s draft electoral rolls, asserting that the state government has no role in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The development follows Chadha’s name being included in the ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Deceased and Duplicate) list published on August 13, with his entry marked as “permanently shifted”. Chadha, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on an AAP ticket in 2022 and recently joined the BJP, alleged that the deletion was an act of political vendetta.
The draft rolls show around 20.66 lakh names, or approximately 9.7 per cent of Punjab’s pre-SIR electorate, as deleted. Chadha said his voter ID was registered in Mohali and questioned why he had been classified as “shifted”. He also noted that the rolls were still at the draft stage and said he was availing himself of the remedies available under the SIR guidelines.
“This does not seem like a mere clerical mistake. This is a clear case of political vendetta,” Chadha said in a social media post. He also alleged that the AAP government was using the state’s administrative machinery against leaders who had left the party.
Responding to the allegations, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar told IANS that the state government had no role in the SIR process. “Everyone knows that the SIR process is being conducted by the BJP government through the Election Commission; the state government has no role in this,” she said.
Kakkar also questioned why the deletion of names of ordinary voters had not received similar attention. She referred to alleged voter deletions in Delhi and Punjab and asked whether Chadha had raised concerns over those cases.
She further claimed that AAP had learnt through a newspaper that Chadha was seeking to shift his voter registration from Punjab to Delhi, and said the party would take action if the BJP assisted in such a move.
Congress MP Manoj Kumar also questioned Chadha’s position, referring to earlier allegations by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi regarding voter deletions. Kumar said Chadha should explain his stance and alleged that large-scale errors in electoral rolls could have implications for election outcomes.
He questioned the Election Commission over voter deletions in Delhi and Maharashtra and demanded that elections be cancelled if it was established that large numbers of voters had been wrongly included or excluded. He also called for affected voters to be given an opportunity to file objections and urged the courts to take cognisance of the issue.
Congress MP Dharamvira Gandhi, meanwhile, commented on Chadha’s political journey, saying he would not make a detailed statement about him. Gandhi alleged that Chadha left the AAP in pursuit of his political interests before joining the BJP along with several others.
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