'EC offers feeble explanation': Congress' EAGLE slams poll body over duplicate voter ID issue

New Delhi: Congress on Friday described the Election Commission's announcement to address the “decades-long” issue of identical numbers for multiple voter ID cards as “duplicitous”, alleging that the poll body is hiding behind its processes to offer a "feeble" explanation.

The party said the initial response of the EC on the issue was to defend itself by stating that this could happen only across states but there are instances with clear evidence of many voters with the same voter-ID in the same assembly constituency in the same state.

“Is the ECI then lying? As the issue of duplicate voter-IDs clearly is not across different states, but rather in the same state and, in many cases, in the same constituencies.

"Congress rejects this feeble and duplicitous explanation by the EC and reiterates its demands to come clean on the sanctity of voter lists…,” the party's ‘Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts’ (EAGLE) said.

The response came as the EC blamed “some” Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for allotting same numbers for multiple voter ID cards and 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.

The statement alleged, “shockingly but not surprisingly, the EC has been forced to admit that its voter lists are flawed and not trustworthy.”

It referred to an EC letter on 18 September, 2008 to Chief Electoral Officers, which insisted that “voter-IDs are unique”, and said the poll body today says the issue of duplicate voter-IDs is a “decades-long issue”.

“Which statement of the EC should the citizens of India believe? Why should an average Indian voter today trust the Election Commission? Further, how is it that 17 years later, EC speaks of constituting a body to clean up this process of multiple voter-IDs? Was the ECI then all along misrepresenting to the voters of India that the 'voter-IDs were unique? If yes, then what are the other processes which ECI has been misrepresenting to its citizens?” it said.

The statement also recalled Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and others urging the EC to provide a copy of the Maharashtra voter rolls used for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

“Why has there been a deafening silence on this? This only reaffirms what the Congress party has been asserting -- voter lists under the current ECI are dubious and flawed,” it added.