Is govt ready to discuss voter ID issue, asks TMC's Derek O'Brien as Parliament resumes after break

New Delhi: With Parliament's Budget Session resuming on Monday after a four-day break, TMC MP Derek O'Brien said the opposition wanted a debate on the issue of duplicate voter ID cards and asked if the government was ready for it.

In a post on X on Monday morning, O'Brien, the TMC Rajya Sabha Parliamentary party leader said the issue was "at the core of democracy". He also tagged his March 12 post in which he sought an "open discussion next week (under Rule 176)" on the matter.

"Parliament gets back to work after a four day break. A constructive Opposition wants to debate an issue that is at the core of democracy. Is the Government ready?" O'Brien said.

Several opposition parties have been demanding a discussion on the EPIC number duplication issue in Parliament, while those from the south have also sought a debate on the issue of delimitation.

According to a source, the opposition parties have said they are flexible with the rule under which the discussion should be held but stressed that Parliament should debate the matter.

The issue of voter ID cards in different states having duplicate numbers was raised by West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on February 27.

In a memorandum to the Election Commission last week, the TMC had also said that there have been "credible allegations of Aadhaar cards being cloned and the use of these cloned Aadhaar cards to facilitate fake voter registrations." The Chief Election Commissioner has convened a meeting on March 18 with the Union home secretary, legislative secretary and CEO of UIDAI to discuss the issue of linking voter identity cards with Aadhaar.

The Election Commission, on March 2, issued a statement, saying 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.

They asserted that while EPIC numbers of some voters "may be identical", other details, including demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth, are different.

In another statement, the EC said since the allotment of EPIC series to the states and Union Territories in 2000, some electoral registration officers did not use the correct series.

They said the allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series could not have been detected as the states and UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.

The poll authority also said it has now decided to resolve this "long-pending issue" after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned state chief electoral officers in the next three months.

It has also directed its poll machinery in the states to hold regular meetings with political parties and resolve issues according to procedure.