EC asks govt to allow it to link Aadhaar with voter ID

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 16

The Election Commission has written to the Ministry of Law and Justice seeking to bring in changes in election laws to empower the poll panel to mandatorily link Aadhaar with voter ID card, as it will help in weeding out duplicate entries and bogus voters in the electoral rolls.

Confirming that the EC has written to the government for the first time, sources in the Law Ministry said, “The poll panel has proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Aadhaar Act, 2016, to empower the commission to collect and use Aadhaar data to eliminate duplicate entries and bogus voters in the electoral rolls.”

In the letter, the poll panel has also asked the ministry to amend the voter enrolment forms to introduce a column for applicants to provide their Aadhaar number, sources said.

The Election Commission (EC) has long claimed that mandatory seeding can prevent voter fraud and ensure each eligible voter will have only one vote.