Kolkata: Strengthening its attack against the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) released a fresh set of what the party referred to as evidence of a “conspiracy” to deny the right to exercise the franchise of voters in opposition-ruled states.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale echoed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s voice that it is dangerous for democracy when the election commission is allegedly partial to the BJP. “If ECI is compromised on behalf of BJP, there is zero possibility of elections being free and fair. ECI must also come clean and disclose how many EPICs are currently active and how many of those bear the same numbers.
The Election Commission of India must come clean on this and an impartial investigation must be conducted on this voter ID scam,” Gokhale said.
After Mamata Banerjee flagged the voter-list issue in a party meeting last week, the Central poll panel had contended that the photo identity card of some voters “may be identical” but the demographic details, constituency and polling booth are different. Trinamool Congress on Tuesday alleged that the ECI stands exposed and wants to “brazen it out”.
Gokhale said the Central poll panel’s clarification contradicted its own rules and guidelines laid down in the Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers. The EC claimed that some voters in different states had the same number on their photo identity cards because their respective states used the same “alphanumeric series”.
“It is impossible for voters in two different Assembly constituencies even within the same state to have the same EPIC numbers as voters in Bengal have been allotted to random people in Haryana, Gujarat and other states,” Gokhale said, adding: “In photo electoral rolls, the elector is linked to his photo by the EPIC number.
Therefore, when a voter in Bengal goes to cast their vote, their photo on the electoral roll will be DIFFERENT if the same EPIC number has been allotted to a person in another state. This will lead to REFUSAL OF VOTING due to a photo mismatch. By allotting the same EPIC numbers in different states, voting can be DENIED to those who are likely to vote for non-BJP parties due to photo mismatch.”
Meanwhile, as a part of Trinamool Congress’ drive to verify electoral rolls, senior leader and MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay inspected Gram Panchayat areas of his constituency Khardah examining the voter lists.