Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said that the issue of voter list in the House needs to be discussed.
He said, “Questions are being raised on the voter list in every state. Questions raised questions on the black and white voter list in Maharashtra. The entire opposition is just saying that the voter list should be discussed.”
Earlier, Saugat Roy of TMC said that Mamata Banerjee has shown the same EPIC number in the voter list in Haryana, West Bengal. He said, “This reflects serious flaws, as stated earlier in Maharashtra, Haryana. They are preparing to hold elections in Bengal, Assam next year. The total voter list should be fully modified,” he said that the Election Commission should respond to its mistakes.
Talking to ANI, AAP MP Sanjay Singh accused the Election Commission and the Central Government of misusing the government machinery to make a list of fake voters. He said that he has adopted the same method in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi and is now preparing to do the same in West Bengal.
Singh said, “The Election Commission and the Central Government, that is, the party sitting in power, is being made fake voters by misusing government machinery. They did so in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi, now they have started the same in Bengal. If the election process will not be fair. Then only one party will come to power and they will do corruption.”
On 6 March, a delegation of Trinamool Congress met Election Commission officials in Kolkata regarding their complaints about the same voter photo identity card (EPIC) number.
After the meeting, West Bengal minister and Mayor of Kolkata, Firhad Hakim, told reporters that each voter should have a unique identity number and demanded physical verification to ensure it.
Hakim told ANI, “Every voter must have a unique identification number; there should be physical verification, and people from outside should not have the right to vote here.”
Earlier, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee constituted a committee to investigate alleged irregularities in the voter list in every district of West Bengal. He alleged that the BJP had added the names of fake voters to the voter list to manipulate elections in Maharashtra and Delhi and they are doing the same moves in West Bengal.
Banerjee said earlier this week, “He has made fake voter list online sitting in the office of Election Commissioner and fake voters have been added in every district of West Bengal. Using this trick, they have won elections in Delhi and Maharashtra. Opposition in Maharashtra could not detect these facts. Most of the fake voters are from Haryana and Gujarat. Gave.”
However, on March 2, the Election Commission clarified that having a single voter photo identity card (EPIC) number does not mean that there are duplicate or fake voters.
The Election Commission clarification came in social media and media reports after expressing concern about voters being EPIC number one being the same in various states.
The ECI clarified in an official statement, “Despite the EPIC number, any voter can vote at the same scheduled polling station in his respective constituency of his state/union territory where its name is recorded in the voter list, nowhere elsewhere.”
This problem arose because different states and union territories used the same alphonumeric series for EPIC numbers before switching to ERONET platforms.
The statement said, “The reason for failure in allotting equal EPICs to some voters of different states/union territories was due to a decentralized and manual system before transferring the voter list database of all states/union territories to the Eronet platform. As a result, the CEO offices of the Union Territories resulted in a single EPIC Alphanumi Series by CEO offices of the Union Territories. There was a possibility of used and allotted duplicate EPIC numbers to voters in various assembly constituencies of different states/union territories.
