TMC MP Saket Gokhale.
Kolkata, West Bengal: Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale flagged the delay in the Election Commission’s reply to his RTI request regarding the number of duplicate Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers issued in parts of the country.
Gokhale emphasised that despite several TMC MPs making repeated requests to the election body asking them to furnish details of duplicate EPICs that currently exist within India, the EC never provided the said information.
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Electors Photo Identification Card, or the EPIC number, is the 10-digit voter ID card number issued by the Election Commission (EC) of India to each elector.
On March 13, the TMC leader filed an RTI with the Election Commission requesting the same. Under the RTI Act, a Public Information Officer (PIO) must respond to an RTI application within 30 days from the date of receiving the application.
Despite the deadline, Gokhale stated that the ECI is “still sitting on the application”.
Questioning the election body’s reluctance to disclose the amount of duplicate EPIC voter IDs across India, the MP asked, “Why does this whole thing seem like a sinister cover-up operation by ECI?”
Why is the Election Commission HIDING details on duplicate EPIC voter IDs?
There have been repeated requests by MP delegations of @AITCofficial to ECI asking them to furnish details of duplicate EPICs that currently exist within India.
This was after ECI ACCEPTED and ADMITTED… pic.twitter.com/XuAI1udbgD— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) April 17, 2025
The ECI, on March 2, had admitted that it allotted identical EPIC numbers to some electors from different states or union territories, which happened due to the “centralised and manual mechanism being followed prior to the shifting of the electoral roll database of all states and UTs to the ERONET platform.”
The election body had however, claimed that the duplication of the voter card numbers did not necessarily mean that there were fake voters. The Commission said that it would remove these duplications and ensure that each voter gets a unique EPIC number.
“Now when the Election Commission claims that it will resolve the issue in 90 days, how will it do this when it doesn’t even know the extent of the problem?” Gokhale had asked in an interview with Deccan Herald in March this year.
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Amid opposition allegations of manipulation of electoral rolls, the TMC is one of the first to highlight the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers.
Citing multiple voters with the same EPIC numbers, on February 27, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged that the ruling BJP at the centre was “with the blessings of the Election Commission of India”, including voters from other states in the West Bengal voters’ list.
