The Trinamul Congress formally urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday to suspend its recently proposed process of linking voter ID cards (EPICs) with aadhaar until the concerns surrounding it are addressed.

A memorandum – signed by Derek O’Brien, TMC parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha, and other prominent TMC MPs, including Kalyan Banerjee, Dr. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Sagarika Ghose – was submitted to the ECI this morning. This follows a previous meeting between a 10-member TMC delegation and the ECI on 11 March.

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“We also urge the ECI to suspend the process of linking EPICs with aadhaar until the concerns raised by TMC in this memorandum are addressed comprehensively,” stated the memorandum submitted to ECI by a four-member delegation.

The TMC has raised concerns about the voluntary nature of aadhaar-EPIC linking. Despite the ECI’s undertaking to the Supreme Court on 18 September, 2023, acknowledging that aadhaar submission is not mandatory, the party said that Form 6B used for the process does not clearly inform voters of this option nor does it provide voters an option to refuse to provide their aadhaar details. The party also questioned why the ECI needed the Union government’s approval to make the linking voluntary and why it didn’t approach the Supreme Court after the government allegedly rejected the ECI’s proposal on the matter.

The TMC also cited a 2022 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that flagged “deficient data management” issues with the aadhaar database, including “issues of data-matching, errors in authentication, and shortfall in archiving.

Central to TMC’s objections is the issue of duplicate EPICs, which party chairperson Mamata Banerjee had flagged on 27 February. The ECI subsequently acknowledged in a 7 March press note that duplicate EPICs have indeed been issued to multiple voters across India since 2000, promising to resolve the issue within three months.

Meanwhile, in parliament, party MP Ritabrata Banerjee has criticised the BJP for systematically preventing parliamentary discussion on the critical issue of fake voter IDs and duplicate EPIC cards. Despite numerous notices submitted by opposition parties, the PM Narendra Modi-led government deliberately stonewalled every attempt to address this serious electoral concern throughout the entire parliamentary session, Banerjee said.

“After submitting the memorandum to the Election Commission of India, we marched all the way to the Parliament. But we witnessed a strange scene. The Treasury Bench created a ruckus and the House was adjourned. Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue of duplicate EPIC cards. Despite giving multiple notices by the Opposition, the government did not allow the discussion even once during the entire session. Linking aadhaar cards with EPIC cards is a dangerous blueprint. Both of them are government statutory bodies. One EPIC number had 60 cards! This is massive corruption. The ECI must work actively to unearth this and ensure a free & fair list. The government is scared and that is why they didn’t allow any discussion on this matter,” the MP said.

Earlier, on 27 February, Mamata Banerjee had raised alarm over large-scale voter ID card duplication, calling it a serious threat to electoral integrity. She had demanded urgent intervention from the Election Commission, warning that such discrepancies could compromise free and fair elections. Despite repeated appeals, the government’s refusal to allow a discussion on this issue has further fuelled concerns about electoral malpractice and transparency.