‘EC admits its mistake now’: Congress, TMC target poll panel after explanation on duplicate EPIC numbers

“All of this has happened because Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee nailed the lies of the ECI and exposed this scam,” he claimed.

“After being in denial, the ECI now says it will ‘fix the issue’ in just 3 months. It has also given a very unconvincing explanation that ‘this duplication of EPIC has happened since the year 2000 due to registration officers using incorrect alphanumeric series’,” said Gokhale.

He raised a set of questions to the ECI, including how an “incorrect series” was allegedly used when ECI’s handbook for electoral registration officers has clear guidelines. “What happened to the software that’s supposed to catch this (error)?” he asked.

“The ECI says this has happened since the year 2000, then why nothing has been done for 25 years until CM Mamata Banerjee pointed it out?” Gokhale sought to know.

He also asked why the ECI hasn’t “revealed how many duplicate EPICs currently exist”.

The Congress, on the other hand, said the ECI, in its response, “hides behind its processes to offer a feeble explanation”. “Shockingly but not surprisingly, the ECI has been forced to admit that its voter lists are flawed and not trustworthy,” the party said in a statement.

“The Election Commission, in a letter issued on September 18, 2008 to Chief Electoral Officers of all states, had said that ‘voter-IDs are unique’. However, the ECI today says the issue of duplicate voter-IDs is a ‘decades-long issue’. Which statement of the ECI should the citizens of India believe? Why should an average Indian voter today trust the Election Commission?” said the Congress.

The party also reminded the ECI about the “categorical demand” made by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other political parties to the Election Commission to provide a copy of the Maharashtra voter rolls. “Why has there been a deafening silence on this? This only reaffirms what the Congress party has been asserting: the voter lists under the current ECI are dubious and flawed,” said the party.

“The Congress party rejects this feeble and duplicitous explanation by the ECI and reiterates its demand to come clean on the sanctity of voter lists in India,” the statement said.