Chadha, who joined the BJP in April this year, was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab as an AAP nominee in 2022. He said his voter ID is registered in Mohali, yet his name has been classified as “shifted” in the draft roll.
“The AAP government in Punjab has now taken its politics of revenge to the Draft Electoral Rolls,” Chadha said on X. “This does not seem like a mere clerical mistake. This is a clear case of political vendetta.”
“Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party, its leadership has been burning with anger. It has unleashed the Punjab Police and the Punjab Government’s administrative machinery against those of us who refused to remain silent. Other MPs who left AAP and joined the BJP have also been targeted by Punjab Govt. This wrongful classification is only the latest act in that political vendetta,” he said.
Chadha’s name in the list of electors is categorised as “absent, shifted, deceased and duplicate” (ASDD). The Punjab draft electoral roll was published on August 13, with his entry marked “permanently shifted”. Chadha is among around 2.06 million names — or 9.7 per cent of Punjab’s pre-SIR electorate — who were deleted from the draft roll.
The deletion comes amid a much wider exercise being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Across 30 states and Union territories covered so far, an estimated 133.7 million names have been left out of the draft electoral rolls prepared under the SIR, accounting for around 14.1 per cent of the pre-SIR electorate.
Chadha said the deletion from the draft roll does not amount to a final removal from the electoral register and that he would use the claims-and-objections process to have his name restored.
“Thankfully, these are only the Draft Electoral Rolls and not the Final Electoral Rolls. Names are corrected during the ‘Claims and Objections’ process, which is ongoing. The Final Electoral Rolls will be published in October 2026. I am already in the process of availing the remedies provided under SIR guidelines,” he said.
The MP also cited Paragraph 4(d) of the ECI’s Detailed Guidelines for SIR, which he said requires a “protected list” of public representatives whose names have been identified. According to Chadha, the provision covers judges, MPs and MLAs, among others.
The provision states, Chadha cited, “All names of member of judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields of arts, culture, journalism, sports, and public services etc. earlier flagged in the electoral database, are to be included in the Draft Electoral Rolls, so that necessary documents can also be collected during the period of Claims and Objections.”
“I am a sitting Member of Parliament from Punjab. If at all my name was flagged, Paragraph 4(d) required my inclusion in the draft electoral rolls,” Chadha said, alleging that the provision was “wilfully violated” in his case.
“AAP may run the Punjab Government, but Punjab’s Draft Electoral Rolls are not its private property,” he added.
Under the schedule for Punjab, the claims-and-objections window is open from August 13 to September 12, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 12.
