The Election Commission (EC) announced on Tuesday that it would initiate technical consultations with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to explore linking voter identity cards with Aadhaar.
The move, the poll panel stated will align with existing legislation, Supreme Court rulings on Aadhaar seeding and privacy concerns.
The move follows a high-level meeting between the EC and top government officials, including the Union home secretary, the legislative secretary from the law ministry, the secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the UIDAI CEO. The government had earlier informed the Rajya Sabha in April 2023 that the linkage process had not yet begun and was still in a procedural phase without set deadlines
Reacting to the development, the Congress party asserted that the EC’s decision to hold consultations on voter roll “clean-up” was a direct acknowledgement of the party’s long-standing concerns about discrepancies in electoral lists. The party has repeatedly raised alarms over irregularities in voter card issuance and cancellations, alleging mismatches in electoral rolls, particularly in Maharashtra between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, reiterated his demand that the EC should address issues of voter list additions and deletions. He urged the commission to publicly share the complete electoral photo rolls for Maharashtra’s 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
In its statement, the EC clarified that linking voter identity cards with Aadhaar would be conducted per constitutional provisions and relevant sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The poll panel emphasised that Aadhaar serves to establish identity but does not confer citizenship or voting rights.
The law permits voluntary seeding of voter rolls with the Aadhaar database. However, it remains unclear whether future legislative changes might make the linkage mandatory. The government has previously assured that non-linkage would not lead to the removal of names from electoral rolls.