Why voter ID numbers have triggered a political storm in Bengal

Team TOI Plus
TIMESOFINDIA.COM Mar 3, 2025, 18:03 IST IST

While TMC says BJP is trying to manipulate electoral rolls with EC’s help, BJP has accused the ruling party of including names of illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya settlers in the rolls

On March 1, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders began a door-to-door campaign to scrutinise electoral rolls amid allegations of voter list manipulation by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of next year’s West Bengal assembly polls.
Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim personally carried out the voter list verification drive in the Chetla area of south Kolkata.

Claiming that Banerjee has questioned the “integrity” of chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said on February 28 that he has written to the EC on the matter.“She (Banerjee) has made all constitutional bodies in the state defunct and is now questioning the appointment of the CEC, which has been done in a transparent manner,” Adhikari said.State BJP leaders, led by Adhikari, on February 28 handed over to the CEO a written representation addressed to the CEC over the issue.The BJP leaders demanded in the representation that the EC must closely monitor and ensure no outsourced agencies are used in any activity connected with voter lists.“We have told the CEO that names of any Hindi-speaking or Matua community citizen’s name must not be deleted from the voter list illegally,” Adhikari said, maintaining that West Bengal is a mini-India with people from all parts of the country residing in the state.Alleging that there are 16 lakh double entries of citizens’ names in the electoral rolls, the BJP leader demanded that these entries be corrected immediately.Alleging that the TMC had been instrumental in getting the names of illegal entrants into the country in the electoral rolls, Adhikari said that a demand has been placed before the CEO’s office for inquiry and deleting such names.“We have demanded that elections be held in West Bengal with biometric fingerprints linking the Aadhar and EPIC cards,” he said. medium118685689 medium118685695What is an EPIC number?EPIC serves as both proof of identity and eligibility to participate in elections. Not many people are aware of the unique identification number assigned to them on their voter ID card.The EPIC number is a unique alphanumeric 10-digit code given to every voter. It is printed on the front side of the voter ID card. It plays a crucial role in identifying and confirming a voter’s identity during elections.Electoral authorities use this distinctive code to verify the legitimacy of voter ID cards, ensuring they are genuine. This thorough verification process helps prevent identity theft, impersonation and other possible voting irregularities. medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/vBr7zdAFWTY?si=iQ3L28TbfB82XzG6How did the EC respond?In a statement issued on March 2, the EC countered Banerjee and clarified that the duplication in EPIC numbers “does not imply duplicate/fake voters”, while acknowledging that some cases of duplicate EPIC numbers were caused by the use of identical alphanumeric series by two different states/Union territories (UTs).“The EC has taken cognisance of certain social media posts and media reports flagging the issue of electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers. In this regard, it is clarified that while EPIC numbers of some of the electors may be identical, the other details including demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth are different for the electors with the same EPIC number. Irrespective of the EPIC number, any elector can cast a vote only at their designated polling station in their respective constituency in their state/UT where they are enrolled in the electoral roll and nowhere else,” the EC said.“The allotment of identical EPIC number/series to some electors from different states/UTs was due to a decentralised and manual mechanism being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database of all states/UTs to the ERONET (electoral roll management) platform. This resulted in certain state/UT CEO offices using the same EPIC alphanumeric series and leaving scope for the possibility of duplicate EPIC numbers being allotted to electors in different assembly constituencies in different states/UTs,” it added.However, to allay any apprehensions, the EC has decided to ensure the allotment of unique EPIC numbers to registered electors. Any case of duplicate EPIC number will be rectified by allotting a unique EPIC number. The ERONET 2.0 platform will be updated to aid and assist in this process.","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/politics/why-voter-id-numbers-have-triggered-a-political-storm-in-bengal/articleshow/118685628.cms","inLanguage":"en","headline":"Why voter ID numbers have triggered a political storm in Bengal","keywords":"tmc,mamata banerjee,ec,bjp,bengal,assembly polls","url":"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/politics/why-voter-id-numbers-have-triggered-a-political-storm-in-bengal/articleshow/118685628.cms","datePublished":"2025-03-03T18:03:00+05:30","dateModified":"2025-03-03T18:03:00+05:30","description":"Politics News: While TMC says BJP is trying to manipulate electoral rolls with EC’s help, BJP has accused the ruling party of including names of illegal Bangladeshi ","thumbnailUrl":"https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-118685664,width-1280,height-720,imgsize-63564,resizemode-6,overlay-toi_sw,pt-32,y_pad-40/photo.jpg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Team TOI Plus","url":"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Team-TOI-Plus-479255230.cms"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Times Of India","url":"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.toiimg.com/photo/msid-92877370/92877370.jpg","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/resizemode-4,width-1280,height-720,msid-118685664/118685664.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},"isAccessibleForFree":false,"isPartOf":{"@type":["CreativeWork","Product"],"name":"Times of india","productID":"timesofindia.com:showcase"},"hasPart":{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccessibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".paywall"}}