Election Commission has admitted 'guilt' over duplicate EPIC numbers: TMC

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has finally "admitted and accepted" their guilt, said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as the poll panel issued a second statement over the issue of duplication of voter ID card numbers.

"The ECI has finally admitted and accepted their guilt that duplicate EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) numbers have been allotted to multiple people. All of this has happened because (West Bengal) CM Mamata Banerjee nailed the lies of the ECI & exposed this scam," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale said in a post on X shortly after the poll panel released a statement saying it will address the "decades-long" matter in the next three months.

"After being in denial, the ECI now says it will 'fix the issue' in just three months. It has also given a very unconvincing explanation that "this duplication of EPIC has happened since the year 2000 due to registration officers using incorrect alphanumeric series"," he said.

Gokhale questioned how an "incorrect series" was allegedly used when ECI's Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers has clear guidelines, and asked about the fate of the software that was supposed to catch this.

He asked if the ECI said this had been happening since 2000, why nothing was done for 25 years until Banerjee pointed it out.

"Why hasn't ECI still revealed how many duplicate EPICs currently exist? This is the second eyewash in a week being passed off as a 'clarification' by ECI," he said.

"What is the ECI hiding and who are they trying to protect? This is a scam & answers must be given," he added.

In a statement, the poll authority said India's electoral rolls are the biggest database of electors across the globe with over 99 crore registered voters. It said since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the states and Union Territories (UTs), some Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) did not use the correct series.

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

The poll authority 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.

"As regards the issue of duplicate Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, the Commission has already taken cognisance of the matter. Irrespective of an EPIC number, an elector who is linked to the electoral roll of a particular polling station can cast his vote at that polling station only and nowhere else," it asserted.

The poll authority 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 by ensuring a "unique national EPIC number" to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number. The new system will be applicable for future electors as well, it added.