EPIC row: EC to resolve issue in 3 months; TMC claims electoral body has admitted its guilt

New Delhi: Blaming “some” Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for allotting same numbers for multiple voter ID cards, the Election Commission on Friday said it will address the “decades-long” issue within three months by providing unique national numbers for Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) having “duplicate” numbers.

Seeking to debunk claims that the identical numbers on voter cards indicated the existence of fake voters, the poll body made it clear that those with duplicate voter ID numbers were “genuine” voters, citing a “sample enquiry of over 100 electors”.

The fresh announcement came as Trinamool Congress, whose supremo Mamata Banerjee raised the issue on February 27, earlier this week called the EC clarification on March 2 was a “cover-up”, citing the poll body's guidelines to insist that two cards cannot have the same number.

TMC reacts to EC's announcement

Trinamool Congress was not impressed with the latest EC announcement, calling it “second eyewash in a week” and asking why has the poll body still not revealed how many duplicate such voter cards exist. “This is a scam and answers must be given,” Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale claimed.

On the issue, Congress earlier alleged that it is now “clear” that the ruling BJP “wins or attempts to win” polls by manipulating electoral rolls “in connivance” with the Election Commission.

“Since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the states/union territories, 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 EC said in a statement.

It said the EC has now decided to “resolve this long pending issue” after detailed discussions with technical teams and concerned Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in states in the next three months by “ensuring a unique national EPIC number to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number and for future voters as well”.

On March 2, the EC had said that the allotment of identical EPIC numbers to some voters was due to a “decentralised and manual mechanism” being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database to the ERONET (Electoral Roll Management) platform. It also said a voter cannot cast his vote at a polling station where she is enrolled and nowhere else.

Responding to the latest EC announcement, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale claimed that the EC has “finally admitted and accepted their guilt” and credited Mamata for “nailing the lies” and "exposed" this scam.

He said the EC has given a “very unconvincing explanation” that “this duplication of EPIC has happened since the year 2000 due to registration officers using incorrect alphanumeric series”. The question is how was an “incorrect series” allegedly used when EC’s Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers has clear guidelines, he said.

“What happened to the software that’s supposed to catch this? If ECI says this has happened since 2000, why was nothing done for 25 years until CM Mamata Banerjee pointed it out? And most importantly: why hasn’t ECI still revealed how many duplicate EPICs currently exist? This is the second eyewash in a week being passed off as a 'clarification' by ECI. What is the ECI hiding and who are they trying to protect?” he said.