BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Raghav Chadha’s name has been added to the electoral rolls of Delhi amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), triggering questions from the Aam Aadmi Party over the procedure followed.
Poll officials said Chadha’s name was added through the regular electoral roll updation process after his name was deleted from the Punjab rolls. His inclusion was among 700 applications approved by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across Delhi’s 70 Assembly constituencies till Tuesday.
AAP leaders alleged that Chadha’s name was added to the Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency roll without following due procedure. Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed Chadha appeared as the 747th voter even though the draft electoral roll published on August 31 had 746 voters in the concerned polling part.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office, however, said applications for inclusion of names continued to be processed during the SIR exercise. The electoral roll was frozen on June 16 and remained so until the publication of the draft rolls on August 31.
According to the Delhi CEO’s office, around 2.14 lakh Form-6 applications for inclusion of new voters were submitted during the pre-SIR period. Another 25,011 Form-6 applications were received during the claims and objections period till September 7.
The office said all such applications, along with Forms 7 and 8, are being processed and that approved additions, deletions and modifications will be reflected in the electoral database. Additions will be published in a supplementary list on November 4, when the final electoral rolls are scheduled to be released.
Bharadwaj sought an explanation from the Election Commission on how Chadha’s name was added to the roll and questioned the procedure followed.
Responding to the allegations, Chadha said he had followed all applicable Election Commission guidelines and procedures.
“I seem to be haunting Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party... Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party, its leadership has been unable to cope with it. They are behaving like a bitter ex who has just been dumped,” he said.
Chadha also accused AAP of confusing electoral rolls with its party membership register, saying the party wanted to “cut out everyone who walks away from Kejriwal and his corrupt AAP.”
(With inputs from PTI)