The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday questioned the Narendra Modi government’s intent on discussing the issue of the duplicate electors’ photo identity card on the floor of the House.
With two more days left for the ongoing Budget session, the Trinamool Congress staged a walkout against the stalling of the demand for a discussion on the issue.
“We had served a notice for a discussion on the duplicate identity card issue. No ruling has been made yet. Every day multiple members from our party and other Opposition parties are issuing notice for discussion but the treasury bench keeps on denying,” said Dola Sen, Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha MP. “Though it was agreed in the Rajya Sabha that a discussion will take place there is no indication from the government side that they will allow it.”
Trinamool’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sagarika Ghose, said the issue is central to electoral reforms and democracy.
“This concerns every citizen of the country and that is why we have been demanding a discussion,” she said.
The Trinamool was open to a short-term discussion on the floor of the Rajya Sabha, which has also not been accepted yet.
Since the session resumed last month, the Trinamool Congress has doubled down on its efforts to keep the issue of duplicate photo identity cards issued by the Election Commission in multiple constituencies with identical alphanumeric code. The Trinamool chairperson and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged voters from other states were being included in the electoral rolls to deny genuine voters from Bengal to exercise their electoral rights.
The BJP in Bengal has alleged that Trinamool had targeted Hindu voters in the border districts of Bengal and deleted their names from the electoral rolls.