Amid allegations of fudging of electoral rolls data, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar has convened a meeting of the Home Secretary, Legislative Department Secretary, and Chief Executive Officer of UIDAI on Tuesday to discuss the issue of linking voter identity cards with Aadhaar.

The meeting comes at a time when the Trinamool Congress has raised the issue of electors in West Bengal and other states having the same Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, leading the Election Commission of India (ECI) to acknowledge that some state chief electoral officers had used the wrong alpha-numeric series when issuing EPIC numbers.

Sources said CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi are set to meet Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Department Secretary Rajiv Mani and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar on March 18 to discuss the linking of Aadhaar with EPIC numbers.

At present, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 allows the seeding of electoral rolls with the Aadhaar database, but on a voluntary basis only. After an amendment to the Act in 2021 enabled Aadhaar linking with EPIC, the ECI began collecting Aadhaar numbers from electors on a voluntary basis.

So far, however, the ECI is yet to link the two databases. The exercise was meant to aid the ECI in detecting duplicate registrations to clean up the electoral rolls. However, linking of Aadhaar was not mandatory.

Sagarika Ghose, deputy leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Rajya Sabha, said the statements issued by the poll panel earlier over the duplicate EPIC numbers and this meeting being called now, are “face-saving measures”. She added that the TMC will keep a strict vigil till the next state elections.

“First, three statements. Now this meeting. This is just a face-saving measure. We will keep a hawk-eye vigil till the elections,” Ghose said.

On March 11, a 10-member TMC delegation had met the full Election Commission bench over the duplicate EPIC numbers. In a memorandum to the Election Commission, the TMC had also said there have been “credible allegations of Aadhaar cards being cloned and the use of these cloned Aadhaar cards to facilitate fake voter registrations.” Earlier, in a note circulated to chief electoral officers of states, the Commission has directed officials to make “all attempts” to link Aadhaar numbers with electoral roll data.

“In order to ensure proper identification of electors and ensure necessary communication, all attempts should be made to link with Aadhaar and mobile numbers,” read the note.

The poll body on March 2, issued a statement saying that identical EPIC numbers or series were allotted to some electors from different states and Union Territories due to a “decentralised and manual mechanism” being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database of all states to the ERONET (Electoral Roll Management) platform. They asserted that while EPIC numbers of some voters “may be identical”, the other details — including demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth — are different.

In another statement, the Commission said that since the allotment of EPIC series to the states and UTs in 2000, some Electoral Registration Officers did not use the correct series. They said the allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series could not have been detected as the states and UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.

The poll authority also 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. It has also directed its poll machinery in the states to hold regular meetings with political parties and resolve issues according to procedure.

Pointing out that the Election Commission has not clearly stated on its Form 6B that seeding Aadhaar with EPIC is an entirely voluntary process and not compulsory, the party had asked how the poll panel would ensure that the alleged cloning of Aadhaar numbers does not affect the EPIC and electoral registration of voters.

Meanwhile, several other opposition parties have also demanded a discussion on the EPIC number duplication, calling it a major issue for democracy. Echoing similar sentiments, the BJD suggested an independent audit of the poll process and monitoring by citizens.

The BJD leaders said the Election Commission should conduct a periodic “process audit” of the entire election exercise by independent auditors or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) and make its report public as is being done in several countries where democratic elections are held. They also urged the poll panel to develop a mechanism for involving citizen groups to co-monitor the election process from inception to the end, and to formulate a mechanism for conducting a concurrent audit during polling at the booth level as well as during counting to ensure trust in election process.

According to a source, the opposition parties said they are flexible with the rule under which the discussion should be held, but stressed that Parliament should discuss the issue. The duplication of voter ID card numbers in different states was raised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on February 27.