With Opposition leaders raising concerns over the sanctity of the electoral rolls, the Election Commission Friday said that it will address the “decades-long” issue of duplicate voter ID numbers within the next three months. This came days after the EC admitted that different people could have the same Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, but added that the duplication did not imply fake voters as different states had used the same alphanumeric series. The TMC and the Congress, which have accused the EC of being complicit in voter “manipulation”, have contested this defence, alleging that there have been cases of the same voter ID number used by several voters in the same state. As per the EC’s Manual on Electoral Rolls, 2023, all EPICs are supposed to have unique numbers. On Friday, the poll panel said that it has now decided to resolve this “long-pending issue” in the next three months by ensuring a “unique national EPIC number” to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number. The new system will be applicable for future electors as well, it added. The panel said it would hold discussions with technical teams and state chief electoral officers. “Irrespective of an EPIC number, an elector who is linked to the electoral roll of a particular polling station can cast his vote at that polling station only and nowhere else,” the panel said. “Sample enquiry of over 100 electors reveals that electors with duplicate EPIC numbers are genuine electors. Since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the States/UTs, some EROs did not use the correct series. The issue of allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series across States/UTs could not have been detected as the States/UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases,” the statement said. West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP of colluding with the EC to influence the forthcoming Assembly election in West Bengal by using fake voters. The Congress has alleged discrepancies in the voters’ list in Maharashtra, questioning an increase in voters in the six months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls held last year. On Friday, citing reports from chief electoral officers, the EC said that when it came to objections to electoral rolls, only 89 appeals were received at the first appeal (at the level of DM/District Collector/Executive Magistrate) and just one at the state chief electoral officer level. No appeal was received in any other state.
