Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 2: Taking cognisance of the social media posts and the concern expressed by the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the Election Commission of India on Sunday sought to allay the apprehensions of tampering with the voters list claiming that duplication in Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers in voter ID cards did not imply bogus voters.
The poll body attributed this duplication to decentralised, manual mechanism that was followed before the voters’ database was shifted to a digital platform. The commission, however, said these cases of duplication would be rectified by allowing unique EPIC numbers to all voters.
The clarification came days after Ms Banerjee cited duplication in EPIC numbers and accused the BJP of colluding with the poll body to add fake voters to the state’s electoral rolls ahead of the Assembly polls next year. “I have proof from all districts. Here it is. Names of people from Haryana and Gujarat appear alongside those of West Bengal residents under the same EPIC number. Fake voters have been added online,” Ms Banerjee alleged.
The Trinamool chief said Opposition parties in Maharashtra and Delhi had failed to spot this tactic. “But we did. That is how the BJP won in Maharashtra and Delhi. Now, they are targeting West Bengal. We will respond strongly,” she said, adding, “It is evident how the BJP is tampering with the voters’ list with the blessings of the Election Commission.”
The Election Commission’s statement did not mention Ms Banerjee and said the poll body took note of social media posts and media reports flagging duplicate EPIC numbers of people from different states. The ECI said irrespective of the EPIC number, a person can cast a vote only at their designated polling stations in their respective constituencies in their States or Union Territories.
“In this regard, 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,” it said.
The poll body explained that this duplication was due to a decentralised and manual mechanism followed before the shifting of states’ electoral roll database 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.”
The ERONET is a web-based platform which was developed for election officials, in multiple languages and scripts, to handle all processes pertaining to registration, migration, and deletion of names from the electoral roll. The Commission said in order to allay any apprehensions, it has decided to ensure allotment of unique EPIC number to registered electors. “Any case of duplicate EPIC number will be rectified by allotting a unique EPIC number. The ERONET 2.0 platform will be updated to aid and assist in this process,” the Election Commission added.
The reports on duplicate voter ID number assumes significance as according to claims by certain social media posts, some of them were of migrant workers from Bengal whose numbers had also been allotted to voters in Gujarat and Haryana.
Shortly after the poll body’s clarification, senior BJP leader and the party’s Bengal co-incharge Amit Malviya said “another lie” from Ms Banerjee has fallen flat. “It is a pity that the Bengal Chief Minister is resorting to misinformation to lay the groundwork for her imminent defeat in 2026 and weaken voters’ confidence in the electoral system,” he said in a post on X.
Mr Malviya urged the poll body to prioritise a voter roll clean-up in Bengal “and remove illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya settlers, whom the TMC has placed across the state as Mamata Banerjee’s vote bank.” “The ECI must also thwart TMC’s attempts to eliminate the names of linguistic minorities and Hindu refugees-including the Matua community, who fled religious persecution and settled in Bengal-from the voter roll,” he said.
Earlier this week, Ms Banerjee had accused the BJP of appointing several agencies for manipulating the electoral rolls in West Bengal with the blessing of the ECI and cited a few examples of EPIC numbers of people of the State being linked to other people living in Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab. She alleged that the electoral rolls of West Bengal were being manipulated so that the BJP could bring in people from other states to cast votes in the Assembly polls.
While attacking the ECI and the BJP, Ms Banerjee had also set a target of 215 seats for her Trinamool Congress in the 294-member state Assembly. “I agree with Abhishek [Trinamool Congress general secretary and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee] that we should aim for at least one more seat than our 2021 tally. Our goal should be to secure 215 seats or more,” Ms Banerjee had said.
Addressing her party leaders at a preparatory meet for next year’s Assembly election, the Chief Minister urged her party workers to ensure that candidates of the BJP, the CPI(M), and the Congress candidates struggle to retain their deposits.
During the event the Trinamool Congress chairperson directed the entire party organisation to hit the ground to ensure that there are no discrepancies in the voter list. “The cat is out of bag as to how the BJP is manipulating the voter list with the blessing of the Election Commission,” the Chief Minister had said.
“If I could go on a 26 day hunger strike during the anti-land acquisition movement in 2006, we could also launch a movement against the Election Commission. If required, we will protest indefinitely in front of the EC office to demand the removal of fake names from the voter roll,” she said. Ms Banerjee had made similar allegations of online inclusion in voter lists on February 12.
