As Opposition parties raise allegations of discrepancies in electoral rolls across India, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday asked parties to send suggestions to Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs), District Electoral Officers (DEOs), and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) before April 30. The ECI also said it has sent letters to all national and state parties, inviting them for interactions with the commission in order to resolve issues. The statement comes a day after Opposition MPs raised the issue in Parliament, demanding a debate.
The ECI’s statement follows an earlier directive to CEOs, DEOs, and EROs to hold regular interactions with political parties and resolve the suggestions that arose in such meetings ‘strictly within the legal framework’, the statement said. The poll officials were given a deadline of March 31 to file action taken reports to the commission.
The aim of these interactions, the ECI said, is to 'strengthen the electoral process' in accordance with the established law.
The statement was issued a day after Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi called for a discussion in Parliament over alleged discrepancies in voters' list in multiple states, including Maharashtra, where Assembly elections were held in November 2024. Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy demanded a revision of voters’ list in West Bengal and Assam ahead of the Assembly elections in the states in 2026. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge meanwhile was not allowed to raise the issue in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
For the past few weeks, the Opposition parties have been raising concerns regarding abrupt deletion or addition of voters in several constituencies ahead of elections; and the presence of duplicate Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers. On March 2, the ECI issued a statement where it said that irrespective of the EPIC number, an elector could cast a vote only at their designated polling station where they are enrolled. It said that duplication of EPIC numbers might have happened due to use of identical alphanumeric series in two states/UTs. The ECI promised to rectify the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers by allotting unique numbers.
Meanwhile, delegations of BJP, Trinamool (AITC) Congress and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) separately met the ECI. While BJD suggested an independent audit of the election process, AITC raised the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers.
"The Commission mentioned that all concerns including duplicate EPIC numbers, duplicate, shifted & dead voters and illegal migrants will be resolved by each Booth Level Officer & concerned Electoral Registration Officer with active participation of Booth level Agents appointed by all political parties," the ECI posted on social media platform 'X' after meeting with AITC delegates.
Following the meeting, the party’s MP Kirti Azad said that they were not satisfied with ECI's response. "Are they aware of the total number of duplicate cards? If not, how can they resolve the issue within 90 days?" he asked.