Congress on EC’s decision to link Aadhaar, voter ID

The Election Commission setting the ball rolling for linking Aadhaar with EPIC numbers is a “clear acknowledgement” of the allegations made by the Congress and Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi about the “suspicious and dubious nature of voter lists”, the party stated on Tuesday.

EPIC, or the Electors Photo Identification Card, is issued by the Election Commission and serves as identification proof for Indian citizens to cast their vote in elections. The EPIC number is the voter ID card number.

Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit number assigned to all card-holders after collecting their fingerprints and eye scans. The database contains information such as residents’ names, addresses and birth dates. The data is used to authenticate citizens’ identities before they access public welfare. The project was created by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2009 to reduce leakages in the country’s welfare programmes.

The Congress’ statement came after the poll panel said on Tuesday that it would begin technical consultations with the Unique Identification Authority of India on linking Aadhaar with EPIC numbers.

“We continue to demand that the Election Commission make public the entire electoral photo rolls of Maharashtra 2024 Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha election,” said the Congress.

The Opposition party had in February urged the Election Commission to explain how the number of registered voters (9.7 crore) for the Assembly polls was more than the adult population of the state (9.5 crore).

It also asked the poll panel to share the state’s electoral rolls for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls held five months apart.

The general election took place in April and May, followed by the state polls in November.

“The main charge of the Congress party was that there was an abnormal increase in new voters enrolled in just five months between the Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, implying that either these were fake, duplicate or ghost voters,” said the Congress’ Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts on Tuesday.

It added: “Fake or duplicate voters is a problem of one person having multiple voters IDs. The Election Commission has acknowledged this problem of ‘one person many voters IDs’ raised by the Congress party, which can be eliminated through de-duplication using Aadhaar.”

The party said it welcomes the Election Commission’s decision. It also urged the poll panel to “consult with all political parties and stakeholders, and assure them that there are sufficient guardrails to not deny the right to vote to even a single eligible citizen as well as the privacy of any single voter is not breached through this process”.

Asserting that the Election Commission must ensure that no Indian is deprived of their vote, Gandhi said that his party and the Opposition INDIA bloc have been “repeatedly raising issues of voter lists, including abnormally high additions, unexpected deletions and duplicate voter ID numbers”.

“While Aadhaar may address duplicate voter ID numbers, the poorest and most marginalised are more likely to face difficulties in the linking process,” he said on social media.

Gandhi added: “Now that the ECI has acknowledged the problem, I reiterate my earlier demand that it should also address the issue of additions and deletions, starting by publicly sharing the entire electoral photo rolls of the Maharashtra 2024 Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha elections.”

EC on linking Aadhaar with EPIC

Earlier in the day, the Election Commission stated that the linking of Aadhaar with EPIC would be done as per provisions of Article 326, which says that only citizens have the voting rights. An Aadhaar card only establishes the identity of a person.

The linking would also take into effect as per sections 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) of the 1950 Representation of the People Act and in line with a Supreme Court ruling in 2023.

Sections 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) of the Act deal with the Electoral Registration Officer’s authority to request Aadhaar for voter identity verification, the process for existing voters to voluntarily submit Aadhaar numbers, and protections ensuring that no one can be denied voter registration or removed from electoral rolls for failing to provide Aadhaar information.

This poll body’s announcement came days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of colluding with the Election Commission to add fake voters to electoral lists in order to win the recent Assembly elections in Delhi and Maharashtra.

She accused the Hindutva party of hiring two agencies to allegedly add residents of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana to the voter list in West Bengal.

West Bengal will head for Assembly polls in 2026.

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