How Punjab MP Raghav Chadha became Delhi voter? Poll body clarifies curious case

Amid a political row and curiosity over the addition of AAP-turned-BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha's name to Delhi's electoral roll, the poll body has now come out with a detailed explanation and chronology of events.

Amid a massive row over the sudden inclusion of BJP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha's name in Delhi's electoral rolls, days after it was removed from the Punjab draft voter list, the poll body has now clarified the curious case. The office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said Chadha filed Form 6 to get his name added to the voter list of Rajinder Nagar constituency on August 26. The application was approved on September 2 after "due procedure", the poll body said.

At the centre of the controversy is a pertinent question. How was Chadha's name added to the Delhi voter list after the draft rolls had already been published? The AAP has gone hammer and tongs at the Election Commission, alleging that Chadha's name was added to Delhi's voter list through the "backdoor" after it was deleted from the Punjab draft electoral roll amid the ongoing SIR exercise.

CURIOUS SIR CASE OF RAGHAV CHADHA

The chronology has added to the intrigue.

Due to the SIR exercise to weed out ineligible voters, Delhi's electoral roll was frozen between June 16 and August 31. The draft list was published on August 31. It did not include Chadha's name.

His name also did not appear in the draft Punjab electoral roll, which was published on August 13. The entry beside his name shows "permanently shifted", as per Election Commission records. Chadha had then accused the AAP government in Punjab of pursuing "politics of revenge".

As per the Representation of the People Act, a candidate must be registered as an elector in any parliamentary constituency to be eligible to be a Rajya Sabha MP.

Now, the sudden addition of his name to Delhi's electoral rolls has triggered a controversy.

The Delhi CEO's office said the Rajya Sabha MP applied for inclusion of his name in Rajinder Nagar on August 26 by filing Form 6. Form 6 is used for new voter registrations.

"The application, bearing number U05039D6N2608261200000, was approved by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) after completion of the mandatory seven-day notice period," the statement said, PTI reported.

DELHI POLL BODY CLARIFIES

In fact, Chadha's name was among the 700 included in the draft list across Delhi till September 8.

A glance at ECI records shows Chadha's name at serial number 747 of booth number 46 in Rajinder Nagar constituency. The draft electoral roll of the same booth, published by the poll body on August 31, showed the last serial number as 746. Chadha's name was not there.

The Delhi poll body has clarified that once an individual's Form 6 is approved, his/her name starts reflecting in the online database immediately.

"Once a Form 6 application is approved, the elector's name begins reflecting in the database immediately, in continuation of the last serial number of the draft roll," the Delhi CEO's office said.

It also cited the ECI's SIR guidelines, which state that names of individuals added during the exercise will be assigned serial numbers in continuation after the last entry in the draft roll.

This is why Chadha's name is visible in the ECI's database and does not reflect in the published draft roll. The final voter list of Delhi will be published on November 4.

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