A delegation of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) parliamentary Derek OBrien, Kalyan Banerjee, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sagarika Ghose, Kirti Azad, Sajda Ahmed and others leaving after meeting with Election Commission of India (EC), at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi on Tuesday (March 11, 2025).
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
A delegation of MPs of the Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (March 11, 2025) met the officials of Election Commission of India (ECI) and raised the issue of discrepancies in the voter list of West Bengal, including fake and duplicate voters.
A ten member delegation of Trinamool Congress comprising MPs both from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha met the ECI officials and raised several questions including why the issue of duplicate EPIC (Electoral Photo Identification card) numbers was kept buried, allegedly for several years, until it was raised by party chairperson Mamata Banerjee on February 27, 2025. The West Bengal Chief Minister had raised the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers where voters in the State and in other states had the same EPIC numbers.
Referring to the statement by the ECI where the Commission has said that similar EPIC numbers do not imply fake or dubious voters, the Trinamool in the memorandum submitted to the constitutional body said that the argument of the Commission does not stand.
“EPIC Numbers are meant to be unique. EPIC numbers are an alphanumeric sequence of three (3) letters and seven (7) digits. The three letters in the EPIC are known as the “Functional Unique Serial Number (FUSN) which is meant to be unique for every Assembly constituency in India,” the Trinamool Congress said in the letter signed by ten MPs.
Pointing out that it is “unclear as to how many duplicate votes have been cast across various elections due to this EPIC number issue” the Trinamool Congress said that there have been “similar concerns over the recently concluded elections in Maharashtra and Delhi where opposition parties have raised concerns about alleged discrepancies in the electoral rolls”. Speaking to media persons after meeting ECI officials, senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said, “We are not satisfied with the answers of the ECI”.
Earlier in the day, a delegation of BJP leaders also met ECI officials. The BJP delegation was led by State BJP president and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar who called for an ‘ extensive review’ of the voter list of the State before the next year’s Assembly polls. “The ECI should engage in a door to door review of the voter list engaging its own staff and new technologies,” Mr. Majumdar said.
The State BJP president was accompanied by several MPs of the party and said that the BJP has given a district-wise list of fake voters to the Commission. “ECI is serious about it (fake voters) and it also is serious about the electoral violence in the State,” the BJP president said. On the issue of duplicate voters with same EPIC numbers, the BJP leaders said that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) is administered with the task of updating the voter list and the Trinamool Government appoints CEO and therefore allegations of discrepancies in the voter list at the behest of Union Government does not stand.
Both the BJP and TMC leaders said that the other party decided to meet the ECI after learning about their plans to meet the Commission officials in the national capital. Earlier in the day, the ECI said that it has invited suggestions from all National and State political parties by April 30, 2025, for any unresolved issues at the level of ERO, DEO or the CEO, as the case may be.
Published – March 12, 2025 12:49 am IST
