Trinamool MPs to meet Election Commission over duplicate 'EPIC' issue on March 11

New Delhi: A Trinamool Congress delegation will meet the Election Commission on the controversial ‘EPIC’ issue on Tuesday even as the party raised the pitch on the issue asking the poll body to provide the number of voters ID card with identical numbers.

The ten-member delegation, including Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien, Lok Sabha Chief Whip Kalyan Banerjee, and Deputy Leaders Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Lok Sabha) and Sagarika Ghose (Rajya Sabha), will raise issues, including clarity on how the EC goes about working on their complaint.

The party has claimed that the EC’s latest clarification on the issue of multiple Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) having identical numbers was a “cover up” and that they would provide unique numbers to all such voters.

On Saturday, O’Brien questioned the deadline set by the EC asking how it could do so when it has not told the public about the magnitude of the problem.

“Tell us how many duplicate EPIC cards there are there. They have admitted and accepted their mistake. I am questioning the deadline. How can you give a deadline when you do not know the magnitude of the problem,” he said.

The EC on Friday 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 EPICs having “duplicate” numbers.

Opposition parties have already indicated that they would be raising the issue during the second leg of Parliament’s Budget Session beginning Monday.

Besides Trinamool, Congress, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), CPI and others will also raise the issue in the House. (ENDS)