Meeting on voter Id-Aadhaar linking part of EC's effort to settle pending issues: Officials

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's proposed meeting with top government functionaries on linking voter ID with Aadhaar is part of proactive steps being taken by the poll panel to resolve "legacy issues" pending for the past 25 years, officials said on Monday. Amid the opposition's allegations of fudging of electoral rolls data, Kumar has convened a meeting on Tuesday with the Union home secretary and the legislative secretary to discuss the issue of linking voter identity cards with Aadhaar.

After he took over as the CEC last month, the poll authority, the officials said, initiated various steps such as holding -- after a "very long time" -- all-party meetings at the level of electoral registration officers, district electoral officers and state chief electoral officers. These meetings are proposed to be held before March 31.

For the "first time in decades", the EC also sought suggestions from all national and state parties on a variety of issues including purification of electoral rolls by April 30.


Amid attacks from opposition parties on the sanctity of electoral rolls, the EC has also resolved to settle within the next three months the issue of duplicate voter card number pending for nearly 25 years.

The EC has also for the first time convinced some political parties to train their field level workers including booth level agents, polling agents, counting agents and election agents regarding their important role in the electoral process.

Flagging cases of duplicate voter card numbers allocated to electors in different states, opposition party Trinamool Congress has alleged that the poll authority was fudging voters' list to help the BJP.

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi echoed similar sentiments in Lok Sabha recently.

Describing duplicate card numbers as a "legacy issue", the election commission has assured to settle the matter in the next three months. It has maintained that duplicate numbers not necessarily mean fake voters.

Sources said Kumar will discuss the issue with the home secretary, legislative secretary and the CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India on Tuesday.

The law allows voluntary seeding of voter rolls with the Aadhaar database.

The government has told Parliament that the Aadhaar-voter card seeding exercise was "process driven" and no target or timelines have been given for the proposed linking.

The government has also asserted that the names of those who do not link their Aadhaar details with the voters' list will not be struck off the electoral rolls.

Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, as amended by the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, provides for the electoral registration officers to require the existing or prospective elector to provide the Aadhaar number for establishing identity on a voluntary basis.