New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday dismissed the Election Commission’s clarifications on duplicate voter ID numbers as a “cover-up” and cited the poll panel’s own guidelines to assert that two cards cannot have identical numbers.
The TMC on Monday called the duplication in EPIC (Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card) numbers an “epic scam” and gave the poll panel a 24-hour deadline to “accept its mistake”.
Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale on Tuesday shared on X excerpts from the ‘Handbook For Electoral Registration Officers’ to counter the poll panel’s clarifications on the issue, which was first raised by TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“Yesterday, the All India Trinamool Congress had given Election Commission of India 24 hours to admit and accept their blunder on the duplicate voter ID fraud issue. Clearly, the ECI, which has been exposed, wants to brazen it out,” Gokhale said.
“The ‘clarification’ given by ECI (on Sunday) in response to CM Mamata Banerjee is actually a cover-up. They have admitted there’s something wrong but are refusing to accept it. The false ‘clarification’ given by the ECI contradicts its own rules and guidelines,” he said.
He said the process of issuing the photo ID cards is laid down in the ECI’s ‘Handbook For Electoral Registration Officers’.
While the EC said photo ID cards with the same numbers were issued to multiple voters due to certain states using the same “alphanumeric series”, Gokhale shared excerpts from the handbook and said it was impossible to do so as the Functional Unique Serial Numbers (FUSN) are different for every Assembly constituency.
“EPIC card numbers are an alphanumeric sequence of three letters and seven digits. The ECI handbook clearly states that the three letters, known as a Functional Unique Serial Number (FUSN), are different for every Assembly constituency,” he said.
“Therefore, it is impossible for voters in two different assembly constituencies (even in the same state) to have the same first 3 letters on their EPIC. How is it then that the same EPIC numbers as voters in West Bengal have been allotted to random people in Haryana, Gujarat, and other states?” he said.
Countering the EC’s clarification that even with two people having the same EPIC number, they can only vote in their respective constituency where they are enrolled, he said the voter is linked to his photo by the EPIC number.
“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 the 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,” he said.
He stressed that the EC rules mandate that the software used for issuing the photo ID cards keeps track of every used and unused number to ensure that the same EPIC number is not allotted to multiple people. Also, EPIC number links the details of voters with their photo and it is considered to be a “permanent unique ID”, he said.
“Therefore, it is impossible that any ‘error’ can lead to the same EPIC numbers being allotted to multiple people in different states. Also, since the EPIC number is linked to voter details, a duplicate EPIC number will lead to denial of voting,” he said.
“This clearly reeks of a conspiracy to conduct voter suppression in favour of the BJP, where voters in non-BJP areas are being targeted by issuing their EPIC numbers to people in other states,” he said.
Gokhale said the matter raises serious questions about the actions of the ECI, especially considering that the Election Commissioners are now appointed by the Narendra Modi government by a majority on a three-member panel where two members are the prime minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“If the ECI is compromised on behalf of the BJP, there is zero possibility of elections being free and fair. The ECI must also come clean and disclose how many EPIC cards are currently active and how many of those bear the same number,” he said.
“An impartial investigation must be conducted on this duplicate Voter ID scam,” he added.
Slamming the poll panel, TMC Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad called it a “caged bird”.
“The ECI is the biggest fraud, just like the ED and the CBI. The Supreme Court once called CBI a ‘caged parrot’, the ECI is also a caged bird,” he said.
“You can see it is specified that an EPIC number of an individual cannot be given to anyone else, but they are doing as they like,” he said, accusing the poll panel of colluding with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The BJP can do anything to win an election if they feel that they are going to lose,” said the cricketer-turned-politician. “This cannot happen without EC officials being involved”.
The EC on Sunday said 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.
According to a source, the issue will also be raised in the upcoming Parliament session, and the TMC is also in touch with some of the other INDIA bloc parties that have raised concerns over voters’ lists in their states.
