India’s democratic fabric has come under scrutiny not because of usual political squabbling but because of disturbing allegations that threaten the very basis of free and fair elections. Alleging widespread manipulation and irregularities in electoral records, Opposition parties are calling on the Election Commission to provide immediate explanations. The charges, ranging from mass deletions in important constituencies to phantom votes, have sparked grave worries about accountability and transparency. As pressure mounts on the poll panel, the integrity of India’s electoral system stands at a crucial crossroads.
On this serious allegation, the government is shying away from discussion on the matter in Parliament. Thus, the opposition parties, including the Congress, DMK, CPI(M) and TMC staged a walkout in protest from the Rajya Sabhaon March 17. Opposition MPs pressed their demand for a discussion on the ECI’s alleged lapses in issuing multiple duplicate voter IDs and delimitation but it was not allowed by the chair. Deputy Chairman Harivansh said they could not be accepted as they were not in conformity with the rulings of the chair on such notices. As many as 10 MPs gave notices under rule 267. TMC and Congress MPs sought to raise the duplicate voter ID issue, Tamil parties wanted to discuss the impact of the ensuing delimitation exercise on southern states.
According to the opposition, the cover was now blown. It is evident that the ruling BJP manipulates voter lists in collusion with the ECI in order to win or attempt to win elections. This is why the Narendra Modi government saw the nomination of ECs to be so important that it overturned a Supreme Court decision that called for a balanced committee to choose ECs.
There are some startling developments on the voter list manipulation. The same voter id number is being used for several voters from the same constituency in the same state as well as from other states. This is utterly shocking. A unique voter ID for every Indian voter is the fundamental requirement and premise of a clean voter list. Multiple voters having the same voter ID is as bizarre as multiple vehicles bearing the same registration number in the country. It is unheard of in any electoral democracy.
Back in December 2024, the Congress called attention to significant anomalies and discrepancies in voter list for the Maharashtra 2024 assembly election, which was swept by the BJP and its allies despite suffering crushing defeat in Parliamentary elections held five months ago. The ECI registered more new net voters (40 lakhs) in the five months between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections than they did in the five years between 2019 and 2024 (32 lakhs) – a statistical and logical absurdity.
This was substantiated through ground reports in some constituencies where thousands of voters were added to the rolls from just one building or brought in from other states. It was further shown that suspiciously most of these new voters enrolled seem to have voted only for the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra, thereby tilting the eventual outcome in their favour.
After allegations of massive fraud and manipulation on a largescale in the voter lists during Haryana, Maharashtra and other states assembly elections surfaced, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge constituted the Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) to examine these allegations in February. Congressmen Ajay Maken, Digvijaya Singh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Praveen Chakravarty, Pawan Khera, Gurdeep Singh Sappal, Nitin Raut, and Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy are on the EAGLE committee.
The expert group’s interim findings revealed that the ECI was complicit in this massive fraud, underlined that “multiple voters from the same constituency in the same state as well as from different states are using the same voter ID number”.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Opposition, brought up this matter on the Lok Sabha floor and called for Maharashtra voter lists. Also, the Maharashtra opposition alliance parties convened a joint press conference. The ECI’s culpability in voter list manipulation has only been strengthened by its stoic silence.
The poll panel first responded by asserting that a voter ID number may be the same across states, but it is specific to a state when presented with evidence of the same number being used by several voters. Given that other voters in the same state and constituency have used the same voter ID number, which even turned out to be a flagrant falsehood. After this was pointed out, there has been pin drop silence.
A person needs a unique voter ID across the country in order to be able to lawfully travel to any state. In this case, the ECIcannot pretend to be incompetent or ignorant. Opposition parties charged that voter list manipulation is done on purpose to support the ruling party and undermine the notion of free and fair elections.
Acknowledging the Congress’s charge of suspect voter lists, the ECI now issued a statement confirming its intent to link EPIC Voter-ID numbers with Aadhaar numbers. This was decided in a meeting of the Election Commissioners with Government officers and technical experts.
However, the Congress rejected the ECI’s answer describing it as a “duplicitous” response on the issue of same voter IDs being allotted to multiple voters.
“The ECI, in its response, hides behind its processes to offer a feeble explanation. Shockingly but not surprisingly, the ECI has been forced to admit that its voter lists are flawed and not trustworthy,” the expert group said in its reaction.
The Election Commission, in a letter issued on Sep. 18, 2008 to Chief Electoral Officers of all States, said that ‘voter-IDs are unique’. However, the ECI today says, the issue of duplicate voter-IDs is a “decade’s long issue”.
Which statement of the ECI should Indian citizens believe? Why should a voter today trust the ECI? Further, how is it that 17 years later, ECI speaks of constituting a body to clean up this process of multiple voter-IDs? Was the ECI then all along misrepresenting to the voters that the ‘voter-IDs were unique’? If yes, what are the other processes which ECI has been misrepresenting to its citizens?
The initial response of the ECIto these questions was to defend itself by stating that ‘this could happen only across states’. But there are instances with clear evidence of many voters with same voter-IDs in the same assembly constituency in the same state. Is the ECI then lying?
Duplicate voter-IDs are obviously a problem inside a single state and, frequently, within the same constituencies rather than across multiple states.
There was a categorical demand made by Rahul Gandhi, along with other concerned political parties, for the ECIto provide a copy of the Maharashtra voter rolls.
Why has there been a deafening silence on this? This only reaffirms what the Congress has been asserting – voter lists under the current ECI are dubious and flawed. The Opposition posed these questions after the ECIissued the statement.
Calling it feeble and duplicitous explanation, the main Opposition party rejected it, reiterating that the commission must come clean on the sanctity of voter lists in India.