Trinamool Congress MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will raise the matter concerning issue of duplicate Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers for voters from different states and fake Aadhaar cards, in the remaining days of the Budget Session of Parliament.
“In the memorandum that our delegation of MPs recently submitted to the full Bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI), we have mentioned both the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers as well as fake Aadhaar cards.
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“Now, our MPs in both Houses of Parliament will be vocal on these two issues on the floor of the House in the coming days as instructed by our leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” said a Lok Sabha member, who was also a part of the delegation.
He said that the party is in favour of developing coordination with other non-BJP parties on these two issues, so that there is an orchestrated voice of the Opposition in the matter on the floor of the House.
However, he added that the Trinamool Congress leadership, including Mamata Banerjee, is not quite happy with the approach of the Congress in maintaining coordination among the Opposition parties, not just on these two issues but also on other matters.
“We hope that at least on these two issues, the Congress will show greater flexibility as regards to maintaining Opposition coordination,” the Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member said.
The main demand of the Trinamool Congress is that the ECI should furnish details on the exact number of EPIC cards with duplicate numbers prevailing in the country and their state-wise break-up and whether the voters having the duplicate EPIC numbers would be ultimately barred from casting votes.
The ruling party in West Bengal has already expressed its objections on why the ECI had suppressed the matter over the existence of the duplicate EPIC numbers before the issue was brought to public notice by Mamata Banerjee.
The party has stated that issuing two voters with the same EPIC number is in violation of Rule 28 of the Representation of People Act.
