TMC fumes over 34 lakh Aadhaar deactivation, alleges 'silent invisible rigging' in Bengal

Kolkata: The TMC on Thursday tore into the EC and the BJP after UIDAI disclosed that around 32-34 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated in West Bengal, and alleged the figures point to a "silent invisible rigging" designed to erase living voters from the rolls ahead of the assembly elections due next year.

The party claimed that the UIDAI's submission before the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, made during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), contradicted the agency's own stand that it does not maintain state-wise or year-wise Aadhaar deactivation records.

TMC spokesperson Arup Chakraborty said, "Today, it was informed in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer that 32-34 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated by UIDAI. But the same UIDAI told Parliament that it does not store Aadhaar deactivation data state-wise or year-wise. Then how is UIDAI giving data to the CEO and Election Commission?" "If this is how SIR functions, we will fight it in courts and on the streets. We will not allow the BJP to turn living voters in Bengal into ghost entries," he said, referring to Bihar's recent Aadhaar-linked fiasco where several living people were shown as deceased, and they moved the Supreme Court.

The TMC alleged that the sheer volume of deactivated Aadhaar numbers indicated an attempt to engineer voter suppression ahead of the special revision of electoral rolls, currently underway.

It appears that SIR stands for “Silent Invisible Rigging”, Chakraborty said.

The UIDAI disclosure came during a meeting with CEO Agarwal on Tuesday, convened as part of the (SIR) of electoral rolls. The EC has asked all state CEOs to coordinate with UIDAI to verify voter databases and identify discrepancies.

According to officials who attended the meeting, about 34 lakh Aadhaar holders in West Bengal have been recorded as 'deceased' since January 2009, when Aadhaar was introduced.

UIDAI authorities also informed the CEO that around 13 lakh individuals in the state never possessed Aadhaar cards but have since died.

A senior official in the CEO's office said the data was expected to help the Election Commission weed out ghost, duplicate and absentee voters.

"The EC has received numerous complaints on this front. The data on deceased citizens will help us identify and remove such entries," the official said.

The TMC, however, maintained that the magnitude of deactivations was "unprecedented" and "inexplicable", alleging political motives behind the exercise.

The party said it would take up the matter with the Election Commission and explore legal remedies if needed.