SIR Row : Raghav Chadha’s Punjab Absence, Delhi Entry Raise Questions

September 9, 2026

New Delhi : BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Raghav Chadha’s name was curiously added to the voters’ list of Delhi amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), days. The AAP cried foul, alleging that Chadha illegally registered himself as a voter in Delhi, with the Rajya Sabha MP accusing his former party of behaving like a “dumped lover”.

“A total of 700 forms for inclusion of names in the electoral rolls were approved by the EROs in 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi till Tuesday. Chadha’s name was among them,” an official at the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) told PTI. The dispute has brought Chadha’s voter registration into focus. It has raised a curious question. How was his name included in the Delhi voter list after the draft rolls had already been published? India Today has reached out to the Election Commission to get clarification on the matter.

Moreover, during the period of claims and objections, another 25,011 Form 6 were submitted till September 7 for the inclusion of their names in the final electoral rolls. The final voter list will be published on November 4. This is where the AAP has alleged a mismatch. Addressing a press conference, AAP Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj said Chadha’s name was added to the rolls of booth number 46 in Rajinder Nagar constituency.

In the case of Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency, the Form 9s uploaded on the CEO website for September 1 to September 7 have a total of 205 names of applicants, which does not include Chadha’s name. According to Chadha’s affidavit for the 2022 Rajya Sabha elections, he had declared that he was registered to vote in Booth Number 52 in Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar, Delhi. After he entered the Upper House as an MP from Punjab, Chadha shifted his electoral registration, and also voted in a booth in Punjab’s SAS Nagar, or Mohali, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on June 1, 2024.

Bharadwaj said, “Raghav Chadha ji himself was claiming that he is a voter from Punjab and would get his vote recast there. The Election Commission had also frozen the Draft Electoral Roll. In such a situation, how did Raghav Chadha ji’s name get added to the voter list at the same booth in Delhi during SIR? Under what process was this new vote created? The Election Commission must answer.”