EC says EPIC No. doesn’t imply ‘fake voters’; TMC dubs it ‘damage control’
Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday clarified that identical Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers do not imply duplicate or fake voters while Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) has called it a “damage control” measure by the poll body.
The EC on Sunday issued a statement saying it could cognisance of the social media posts and media reports flagging the issue of electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers. The commission’s statement read: “… it is clarified that while EPIC numbers of some of the electors may be identical, the other details including demographic details, Assembly Constituency and polling booth are different for the electors with the
same EPIC number. Irrespective of the EPIC number, any elector can cast a vote only at their designated polling station in their respective Constituency in their State/UT where they are enrolled in the electoral roll and nowhere else.”
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said that the Commission’s stance proved the claims made by party chairperson and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to be true. “The conspiracy has been unearthed and now the Election Commission has resorted to damage control. The Commission has not clarified how such things happened and now have claimed they are taking measures,” Ghosh said.
Banerjee, while addressing her party’s elected representatives, leaders and functionaries on Thursday, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of manipulating the voter list by enrolling “fake voters” from other states in the electoral rolls with the “blessings” of the Election Commission ahead of the Assembly elections early next year. She warned of staging a sit-in demonstration before the office of the poll panel if corrective action is not taken to ensure transparency in electoral rolls by weeding out fake voters.
Ghosh claimed TMC doesn’t believe in the statement of the poll panel and will continue with its door to door and booth-wise scrutiny of the voter list as Banerjee’s directions. “This is Bengal and the conspiracy hatched in Maharashtra and Delhi will not work. Their conspiracy to enlist outsiders in Bengal’s voter list will be foiled. Our thrust will be going door-to-door and every single booth and weed out any bogus voters and prepare the voter list with full transparency,” he added.
The poll body claimed that the allotment of identical EPIC number/series to some electors from different States/UTs was due to a decentralised and manual mechanism being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database of all States/UTs to the ERONET platform.
“This resulted in certain State/UT CEO offices using the same EPIC alphanumeric series and leaving a scope for the possibility of duplicate EPIC numbers being allotted to electors in different Assembly Constituencies in different States/UTs,’” read the statement.
The Commission stated that to allay any apprehensions, it has decided to ensure allotment of a unique EPIC number to registered electors. Any case of duplicate EPIC number will be rectified by allotting a unique EPIC number.
Banerjee had alleged the BJP had hired two agencies which were including the names of people from distant states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana in the voters’ list through the online system.
