Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has urged Speaker Om Birla to allow a discussion on the concerns surrounding voter lists in India. Gandhi pointed out that questions about the accuracy of voter lists are being raised across various states, highlighting specific issues in Maharashtra, where concerns about the black-and-white voter lists have emerged.
“The question is being raised on the voter list in every state. In Maharashtra, questions were raised about the black-and-white voter list. The entire opposition is demanding that there should be a discussion on the voter list,” Gandhi stated during his address in the Lok Sabha.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saugata Roy also raised similar concerns, alleging discrepancies in the voter lists across states, including Maharashtra and Haryana, citing the same Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers being used in multiple regions. Roy suggested that these flaws indicated preparation for manipulation in upcoming elections, especially in states like West Bengal and Assam.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh further accused the Election Commission and the central government of misusing state machinery to create fake voter entries in Maharashtra, Haryana, and Delhi, and claimed similar tactics are being used in West Bengal ahead of elections. “The Election Commission and the central government, together, are using government machinery to create fake voters, and this has been happening in multiple states,” Singh claimed.
In response to these allegations, a delegation from TMC met with Election Commission officials in Kolkata on March 6 to address their concerns. West Bengal Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim reiterated the need for a unique ID number for each voter and called for physical verification to eliminate any irregularities. “Every voter should have a unique ID number; there should be physical verification, and people from outside should not have voting rights here,” Hakim emphasized.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also formed a committee to investigate irregularities in the voter lists across West Bengal. She accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of adding fake voters to manipulate elections in Maharashtra and Delhi, and feared the same tactic was being attempted in her state. Banerjee alleged that fake voter entries, particularly from Haryana and Gujarat, had been added to the voter lists in an attempt to influence elections.
However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) clarified on March 2 that the existence of identical EPIC numbers across states does not necessarily indicate fake voters. The ECI stated that each elector can vote only at their designated polling station in their respective constituency, regardless of whether they share an EPIC number with someone in a different state.
The ECI explained that the issue arose due to the previous decentralized and manual process of allotting EPIC numbers before the adoption of the ERONET platform, which has since resolved such discrepancies. The Commission assured that no duplicate EPIC numbers would affect the election process.