The Trinamool Congress has objected to the Election Commission’s decision to link the voters’ identity card with Aadhaar of voters.

The freshest salvo came Friday amidst repeated denials by the union government to address the issue of duplication in the photo identity cards issued by the central poll panel on the floor of the parliament.

“… the proposed linking of EPICs with Aadhaar is premature and will only create more problems rather than solve them,” read a memorandum served to the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The party has demanded the central poll panel suspend the process of linking Aadhaar with EPICs till it clarifies the questions the party has been raising since Bengal chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee flagged the issue at a party meeting in February.

The Trinamool has claimed a CAG report had expressed concern over UIDAI allegedly generating and issuing Aadhaar numbers with incomplete information, lack of proper documentation and poor quality biometrics which resulted in duplicate Aadhaars being generated.

“The EC should clarify how it will ensure that duplicate and fake Aadhaars will not be linked to EPICs and how fake and ghost voters will not be added to electoral rolls through this mechanism,” said a Trinamool MP.

Among the chief demands that the Trinamool had made before the EC was a figure on the existing number of duplicate voters’ identity cards where the same alphanumeric code has been issued to different voters in multiple constituencies transcending state borders.

“Despite repeated requests the ECI has failed to furnish details of the total number of duplicate EPICs that exist across India in the system currently,” the memorandum read.

The Trinamool Congress has asked the EC why it has not clarified on the voluntary nature of linking Aadhaar with the voter I-cards.

“Why has EC not clearly stated on its Form 6B that seeding Aadhaar with EPIC is an entirely voluntary process and that it is not compulsory? How does the EC ensure that the alleged cloning of Aadhaar numbers does not affect the EPIC and electoral registration of voters?” asked the Trinamool.

Citing an undertaking given by the EC to the Supreme Court on September 18, 2023 the Trinamool asked why the EC did not make changes in the form 6B – letter of information of Adhaar number for the purpose of electoral roll authentication.

The EC in its undertaking had stated, “The submission of the Aadhaar number is not mandatory under Rule 26-B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022 and hence the Election Commission is looking into issuing appropriate clarificatory changes in the forms introduced for that purpose.”