Punjab’s draft electoral rolls prepared by the Election Commission of India under its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) program now contain the name of Punjab’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha with the annotation ‘permanently shifted. Chadha, whose political journey took him from the Aam Aadmi Party to the BJP, called the omission of his name a politically motivated action taken by the irate administration.
Legal protections : The amendments in the Representation of the People Act in the year 2003 removed the provision of maintaining voter identity as a pre-requisite for being a candidate for Rajya Sabha election.
This is a clear case of political vendetta,” Chadha said in a detailed social media post, alleging that the AAP government was using the state’s administrative machinery against those who had left the party. “Ever since I left the corrupt Aam Aadmi Party, its leadership has been burning with anger,” he said. Questioning the classification : The MP said classifying a sitting Member of Parliament as permanently shifted was both illogical and beyond the purview of administrative oversight. SIR Remedy: Pointing out that the currently available list of voters is in draft only, the MP said he was going to make all the rectifications as suggested by the guidelines of the Election Commission. Guidelines not applied : He said that standard SIR provisions providing protection to public representatives, including MPs and MLAs, have been bypassed in his case. Earlier reporting noted: The former AAP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha, who joined the BJP a few months ago, said his name had been marked as “shifted” despite being a sitting Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab with his voter ID registered in Mohali. Earlier reporting noted: The AAP government, however, distanced itself from the deletion, saying the SIR is conducted by the Election Commission (EC) and that the state government has “no role” in deciding whose name is included or removed from the electoral rolls.
“This does not seem like a mere clerical mistake. Against the administration : Referring to his high-profile exit from AAP at the start of the year, he alleged that the administration was using state machinery to take political revenge. Protection of the public right : Saying that the rolls of the state are not owned by any political party, Chadha pledged to fight this omission through legal means.
Earlier reporting noted: Raghav Chadha claims name ‘shifted’ in Punjab draft electoral rolls, AAP denies hand BJP MP Raghav Chadha on Thursday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government of political vendetta after alleging that his name had been deleted from the state’s draft electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.
