The Election Commission on Friday said it would issue over the next three months unique voter identity card numbers to eliminate duplication.
The development comes ahead of the resumption of the budget session of Parliament on Monday. The Trinamool Congress and other Opposition parties have decided to intensify their protest against the "cover-up".
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had last month flagged the issue of multiple voters having identical EPIC (elector photo identity card) numbers. The EC had admitted the irregularity and attributed it to a decentralised and manual mechanism that was followed before the electoral roll database of all states and UTs was shifted to the ERONET platform.
In a statement on Friday, the EC said: “Irrespective of an EPIC number, an elector who is linked to the electoral roll of a particular polling station can cast his vote at that polling station only and nowhere else. Sample enquiry of over 100 electors reveals that electors with duplicate EPIC numbers are genuine electors. Since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the States/UTs, some EROs (electoral registration officers) did not use the correct series. The issue of allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series across states/UTs could not have been detected as the states/UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.”
The poll authority said it had decided to resolve this “long-pending issue” in the next three months by ensuring a “unique national EPIC number” to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number. The new system will be applicable for future electors as well, it added.
Trinamool MP Saket Gokhale posted on X: “How was an ‘incorrect series’ allegedly used when ECI’s Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers has clear guidelines? What happened to the software that’s supposed to catch this?
“If ECI says this has happened since 2000, why was nothing done for 25 years until CM Mamata Banerjee pointed it out? And MOST importantly: Why hasn’t ECI still revealed how many duplicate EPICs currently exist?”
A Trinamool drive to detect the duplication had revealed that Nurjamal from Murshidabad and Suman from Haryana’s Hisar had the same EPIC number. Suman’s name appears on the voter lists of both Hisar and Murshidabad but his polling booth is different from the one where Nurjamal is registered. The EC has not explained how this could have happened.
The Opposition parties have hinted at the existence of “floating voters” who transfer their votes to poll-bound states to influence the outcome.
