Raghav Chadha has no moral right to be in Parliament, says AAP Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj

The Aam Aadmi Party and its former Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, who has since joined the BJP, faced off over the deletion of his name from the electoral roll in Punjab following the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s voter list, first reported by The Indian Express Thursday.

Chadha accused the AAP-led Punjab government of “politics of revenge”, alleging that despite being a sitting Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab with his voter ID registered in Mohali, his name had been classified as “shifted” in the draft electoral rolls.

AAP Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj hit back, stating that “Chadha lives in Delhi, not Punjab”, questioning why he should have a vote at the latter and invoking SIR rules, under which a voter’s name can be deleted if they are not found residing at their registered address.

He added that the same rules were used in Delhi to mark lakhs of voters as “shifted” and delete their votes merely for changing houses. Chadha, in a post on X, reiterated what he had told The Indian Express: “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. This does not seem like a mere clerical mistake. This is a clear case of political vendetta.” Addressing a press conference, AAP’s Bharadwaj said, “If Raghav Chadha does not live in Punjab, his vote should be deleted from there.

The man who used to speak about the Right to Reject (people should have the right to recall an elected representative), should now apply that rule to himself.” He added, “He no longer has any moral right to enter that temple of Parliament or spend even a single day in the government accommodation allotted to him as a Rajya Sabha member, because he used to make reels from Parliament advocating the Right to Reject.

The media should ask him: Under what moral authority is he occupying that seat?” Bharadwaj also claimed that The Indian Express had “information” that Chadha was trying to get his voter registration made in Delhi through the EC via a “backdated process.” He said that when The Indian Express sought an official response from the EC, this process was stopped.

He claimed that this was not published in the newspaper. The Indian Express replies: Bharadwaj’s claim that the newspaper sought the EC's response on the “backdated” process is incorrect. Incidentally, on Wednesday, when The Indian Express asked AAP for its comment on Chadha's allegation, the party sent a statement which claimed: “The AAP has received information from Election Commission sources that Raghav Chadha is trying to get his voter registration made in Rajinder Nagar, Delhi, through a backdated process.” The Indian Express sent an email to the Election Commission on Thursday on AAP’s claim.

There was no response.