With just one week remaining until the municipal corporation elections in Punjab, all eyes are fixed on Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha’s registration as a voter in Mohali.
Chadha’s name appears on the voter list for Ward No. 44 of the Mohali Municipal Corporation, raising the question of whether he will return to the state to cast his vote on May 26.
According to the Mohali Municipal Corporation’s electoral rolls, Chadha is registered at Serial Number 253, Booth Number 160 in Ward 44, with his address listed as Regency Heights in Mohali. Prior to this, he had cast his vote at the Lakhnaur polling station in Mohali—under the Anandpur Sahib constituency—during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Chadha, along with six other Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had executed a major political realignment by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Since joining the BJP, he has expressed apprehensions that he might be targeted by the AAP government in Punjab.
Since leaving the AAP, Chadha has not visited Punjab, despite consistently describing himself as a “son of Punjab.”
Local AAP leaders are keeping a close watch on his next move. Phool Raj Singh, the AAP candidate from Ward No. 44, stated that Chadha should come to Mohali and exercise his franchise.
“He claims to be a Punjabi; therefore, he must certainly exercise his right to vote in the municipal corporation elections,” Singh remarked.
Meanwhile, Chadha’s voter registration in Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar Assembly constituency (Serial Number 313, Part Number 52) has been cancelled. The move to register himself in Mohali appears to have been taken following his nomination to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab in April 2022, when a political controversy erupted in the state regarding his status as an “outsider.”
Attempts to contact Chadha on his mobile phone proved futile. Chadha casting his vote in Mohali is being viewed as a strategic move aimed at strengthening his connection with the voters of Punjab, at a time when the municipal corporation elections are seen as a prelude to the larger electoral contest for the Legislative Assembly.
