CEC Kumar Calls Meeting To Discuss Voter Card, Aadhaar Seeding Next Week

TMC Dubs It As A 'Face Saving' Exercise

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of fudging of electoral rolls data, the Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to hold a meeting with the top officials of the Union Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) next week to discuss the issue of linking of the Aadhaar numbers with the voter identity cards.

The move comes in the wake of an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in 2021 that enables the linking of the Aadhaar numbers with the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs). The EC began collecting the Aadhaar numbers from electors in 2022. This exercise has remained voluntary and has not been made mandatory for voters.

The Election Commission has not used the Aadhaar numbers in its revisions of the electoral rolls so far. The exercise was meant to aid the Commission in detecting duplicate registration of voters in order to clean up the electoral rolls.

The poll body, comprising Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, is scheduled to meet Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Department Secretary Rajiv Mani and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar on March 18 to discuss the seeding of the Aadhaar numbers in the voter IDs, sources said.