The Election Commission of India (ECI) has successfully addressed the long-standing issue of duplicate electoral photo identity card (EPIC) numbers, according to official sources.
Fresh voter ID cards with unique numbers have now been issued to affected individuals.
While concerns had been raised over potential duplication, the EC clarified that the instances of similar EPIC numbers were extremely limited — on average, just one case was found in every four polling stations. These voters were confirmed to be legitimate and registered in different assembly constituencies or polling stations.
Officials emphasised that the presence of identical EPIC numbers did not allow anyone to vote multiple times. “Every voter is registered at their specific polling station where they reside. A similar EPIC number never enabled anyone to cast a vote elsewhere,” an official stated, assuring that the integrity of election results remained unaffected.
The controversy comes amid opposition allegations, particularly from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which accused the EC of voter list manipulation and demanded transparency. Responding to these concerns, the Commission had pledged in March to resolve the decades-old issue within three months.
Fulfilling that commitment, the EC undertook a massive audit of its database — covering over 99 crore registered voters, across 4,123 assembly constituencies and more than 10.5 lakh polling stations nationwide. On average, each polling station hosts around 1,000 electors.
The issue, as traced by the EC, dates back to 2005 when different states used localized alphanumeric series for voter ID cards. Following the 2008 delimitation of constituencies, some states either continued using outdated codes or mistakenly adopted codes assigned to other areas, largely due to typographical errors.
Despite the resolution, political reactions continue. A senior TMC leader commented, “We will respond once the EC addresses the matter officially, not through unnamed sources.”
TMC had earlier alleged a deliberate cover-up and highlighted the presence of duplicate voter ID numbers across different states.