The Election Commission on Sunday ruled out charges of manipulation in the electoral roll and said duplication of EPIC numbers allotted for voters could be possibly due to the use of the same alphanumeric series by two different states. However, the Commission said the same number doesn’t “imply they are duplicate or fake voters”.
The Election Commission has taken cognizance of certain social media posts and media reports flagging the issue of electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers. In this regard, it is clarified that while EPIC numbers of some of the electors may be identical, the… pic.twitter.com/O7QuboR4hc
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2025
In a statement, the Election Commission said, “The Election Commission has taken cognizance of certain social media posts and media reports flagging the issue of electors of different states having identical EPIC numbers. In this regard, it is clarified that while EPIC numbers of some of the electors may be identical, the other details including demographic details, Assembly Constituency and polling booth are different for
the electors with the same EPIC number.”
The Commission said though the EPIC number allotted to voters could be the same, a voter can cast his vote only at a designated polling booth in a constituency. “Irrespective of the EPIC number, any elector can cast a vote only at their designated polling station in their respective Constituency in their State/UT where they are enrolled in the electoral roll and nowhere else,” it said.
The poll body said manual mechanism and decentralized process could have led to allotting similar EPIC numbers to voters in different states. “This resulted in certain State/UT CEO offices using the same
EPIC alphanumeric series and leaving a scope for the possibility of duplicate EPIC numbers being allotted to electors in different Assembly Constituencies in different States/UTs.”
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However, to address the issue, the Election Commission has decided to allot unique EPIC numbers to voters and update the ERONET 2.0 platform to better aid the process. “Any case of duplicate EPIC number will be rectified by allotting a unique EPIC number. The ERONET 2.0 platform will be updated to aid and assist in this process,” the poll body said.
The Election Commission’s clarification comes after opposition parties accused manipulation in the electoral rolls of states where assembly polls were recently held. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had charged additional voters were added to voters’ list in Maharashtra, ahead of assembly polls in the state, to defeat the opposition. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also raised a similar charge recently.
