CEC Kumar calls meeting to discuss voter card, Aadhaar seeding next week

New Delhi: Amid allegations of fudging of electoral rolls data, the Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to hold a meeting with the top officials of the Union Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) next week to discuss the issue of linking of the Aadhaar numbers with the voter identity cards. The move comes in the wake of an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in 2021 that enables the linking of the Aadhar numbers with the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs). The EC began collecting the Aadhaar numbers from electors in 2022. This exercise has remained voluntary and has not been made mandatory for voters.

The Election Commission has not used the Aadhaar numbers in its revisions of the electoral rolls so far. The exercise was meant to aid the Commission in detecting duplicate registration of voters in order to clean up the electoral rolls.

The poll body, comprising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, is scheduled to meet Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Department Secretary Rajiv Mani and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar on March 18 to discuss the seeding of the Aadhaar numbers in the voter IDs, sources said.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has raked up the issue of electors in West Bengal and other states having the same EPIC numbers. The EPIC row was flagged by TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a recent conclave of her party in Kolkata. She had also charged the ruling BJP with allegedly manipulating the voter lists in collusion with the EC.

It led the EC to acknowledge that some state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) had used the wrong alphanumeric series when issuing the EPIC numbers. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had also echoed similar sentiments in the Lok Sabha recently.

Describing duplicate card numbers as a “legacy issue”, the Election Commission has assured to settle the matter in the next three months. It has maintained that duplicate numbers for not necessarily mean fake voters.

The government has told Parliament that the Aadhaar-voter card seeding exercise was “process driven” and no target or timelines have been given for the proposed linking. The government has also asserted that the names of those who do not link their Aadhaar details with the voters’ list will not be struck off the electoral rolls. Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, as amended by the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, provides for the electoral registration officers to require the existing or prospective elector to provide the Aadhaar number for establishing identity on a voluntary basis.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress on Saturday said the meeting convened by the CEC to discuss voter identity card and Aadhaar seeding is a “face-saving measure”. Sagarika Ghose, deputy leader of TMC in Rajya Sabha, said the statements issued by the poll panel earlier over the duplicate EPIC numbers and this meeting being called now, are “face-saving measures”. She added that the TMC will keep a strict vigil till the next state elections. “First, three statements. Now this meeting. This is just a face-saving measure. We will keep a hawk-eye vigil till the elections,” Ghose said.

On March 11, a 10-member TMC delegation had met the full Election Commission bench over the duplicate EPIC numbers. In a memorandum to the Election Commission, the TMC had also said there have been “credible allegations of Aadhaar cards being cloned and the use of these cloned Aadhaar cards to facilitate fake voter registrations.” Pointing out that the Election Commission has not clearly stated on its Form 6B that seeding Aadhaar with EPIC is an entirely voluntary process and not compulsory, the party had asked how the poll panel would ensure that the alleged cloning of Aadhaar numbers does not affect the EPIC and electoral registration of voters.

Several other opposition parties have also demanded a discussion on the EPIC number duplication, calling it a major issue for democracy.

The Election Commission, on March 2, issued a statement saying that identical EPIC numbers or series were allotted to some electors from different states and Union Territories due to a “decentralised and manual mechanism” being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database of all states to the ERONET (Electoral Roll Management) platform.

They asserted that while EPIC numbers of some voters “may be identical”, the other details -- including demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth -- are different.

In another statement, the Election Commission said that since the allotment of EPIC series to the states and UTs in 2000, some Electoral Registration Officers did not use the correct series.

They said the allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series could not have been detected as the states and UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.

The poll authority also said it has now decided to resolve this “long-pending issue” after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned state chief electoral officers in the next three months.